Solaris Alpino is a low-floor

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

built as part of the

Solaris Urbino Solaris Urbino is a series of low-floor buses and low-entry doorway intercity buses, powered by diesel drive engines and alternative fuel ( CNG, gas and biogas, hybrid and electric), produced by the Polish company Solaris Bus & Coach in ...

series, developed for city transportation, manufactured from 2007 by

Solaris Bus & Coach Solaris Bus & Coach sp z o.o. is a Polish manufacturer of public transport vehicles (buses, trolleybuses and trams), with its headquarters in Bolechowo-Osiedle near Poznań. It is a subsidiary of Spanish rolling stock manufacturer Construcciones ...

from Bolechowo near

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. In 2008 the longer, low-entry variation of the bus Solaris Alpino 8.9 LE came into production.

History

The bus model is part of the Solaris Urbino series. The bus prototype debuted in the Transexpo Show in

Kielce Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...

in September 2006. Production began in the spring of 2007, the producers concentrated bus production for

Alpine countries The Alpine states or Alpine countries are eight countries associated with the Alpine region, as defined by the Alpine Convention of 1991: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia, and Switzerland. Territory The ter ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and for large cities where there are sharp bends and narrow roads. The prototype was fitted with a

Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, electric vehicle components, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipmen ...

ISBe4 250B engine, with the power of 250 HP and with an automatic transmission

Voith The Voith Group is a global technology company. With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services and digital applications, Voith trades in the markets of energy, paper, raw materials and transport. Founded in 1867, Voith today has aroun ...

Diwa 854.5, the bus can also be fitted with a ZF transmission. The engine complies with the normal standard of

Euro 4 The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in European ...

, by the use of special filters the engine can be upgraded to

Euro 5 The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in European ...

. The Solaris Alpino is fitted with an engine which complies with the exhaust emissions standard Euro 4. The bus can also be produced with an engine Euro 5 or

EEV In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV), also written electron-volt and electron volt, is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating through an Voltage, electric potential difference of one volt in vacuum ...

. The bus can also have an engine fitted which is powered by

CNG Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in c ...

. In July 2008 the

company signed the largest order yet in its history with the

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

company

ETHEL Ethel (also '' æthel'') is an Old English word meaning "noble", today often used as a feminine given name. Etymology and historic usage The word means ''æthel'' "noble". It is frequently attested as the first element in Anglo-Saxon names, ...

( OSY as of July 2011) for the delivery of 320 buses, including 220 Solaris Alpino with engines of Euro 4 standard. The delivery had been made by the first half of 2009.

Alpino 8.9 LE

The Solaris Alpino 8.9 LE was put into production since the spring of 2008. The first customer, who contributed to the creation of the model, placed an order for three types of the low-entry bus, to a company in

. The first information about it appeared during the AUTOTEC Trade Fair in Brno in June 2008, after the delivery of the buses to Austria. Officially debuted during the IAA Nutzfahrzeuge Trade Fair in 2008 in

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, which was held from September 25 - October 2, 2008, while in

it was shown at the Transexpo Trade Fair in

in October 2008. The Solaris Alpino 8.9 LE is extended by more than 30 cm from the low-floor variant Solaris Alpino. It has a longer wheelbase and longer rear overhang, which resulted in an increase in weight. Just like the base model it is structurally related to the third generation

buses. It is equipped with Cummins ISBe4 250B engine (with a capacity of 6.7 dm³ and 250 HP in power) centrally mounted at the back and a

Voith DIWA The Voith DIWA automatic transmission was designed by Voith primarily for city-buses and suburban buses. The transmission utilizes a Differential-Wandler (Converter) or DIWA which replaces two gears which would be used on a conventional transmi ...

854.5 automatic gearbox. Optionally the bus can be mounted with a 6-speed automatic ZF 6HP-504 gearbox. This engine meets the standard

Euro IV The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in Europea ...

using SCR technology, which requires

AdBlue Diesel exhaust fluid (DEF; also known as AUS 32 and sometimes marketed as AdBlue) is a liquid used to reduce the amount of air pollution created by a diesel engine. Specifically, DEF is an aqueous urea solution made with 32.5% urea and 67.5% ...

. The front suspension can be installed independently or alternatively with the IFS Voith ZF RL 75 EC. At the rear, it has a standard RS ArvinMeritor axle 24 on double tires. The width was reduced by 15 cm when compared with the

series, and the desire to preserve adequate headroom in the rear of the bus without unduly increasing the height of the whole bus resulted in the need for the rear tires to have a reduced size. To ensure a broad aisle, on the one side of the bus instead of double seats there are 1 + 1/2 type seats on the rear axle. The cab is fitted as standard with a dashboard designed by Solaris, there is an optional dashboard by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

VDO or Multibus Actia. Initially, the Solaris Alpino 8.9 LE had the Euro 4 engine as standard. At present, the ISBe5

engine or

ISB6.7E5 250B or ISB6.7E5 285B can be used which meets

Euro V The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in European ...

(which is the same type, but with an additional filter) or

. The bus can also be fitted a

-powered engine. To reduce the rear axle load fuel tank with a capacity of 165 dm³ was placed behind the front door, and the

tank with a capacity of 40 dm³ was placed between the front wheel arches and the middle door. By using these solutions such as the central lubrication system and the self-diagnostic KFBS1 Kogel and the maintenance-free bearings in the drive and steering, this has reduced servicing time and cost. In 2011, the company debuted the first prototype Solaris Urbino electric LE 8.9 electric bus, which was created by a significant redesign of the Solaris Alpino 8.9 LE.

Gallery

File:Sol017.jpg, Solaris Alpino 8.6 File:Sol022.jpg, Solaris Alpino 8.9 LE File:Sol024.jpg, Solaris Alpino 8.9 LE

References

External links

* {{Commonscat-inline Alpino Low-floor buses Hybrid electric buses Vehicles introduced in 2007 Vehicles discontinued in 2018