SODERTALJE, Sweden, March 2, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Scania has been highly successful on the Swedish bus market, selling 283 urban and interurban buses worth around SEK 600 million since the beginning of 2005. The biggest single order is for 123 ethanol-fuelled suburban buses to Storstockholms Lokaltrafik, the public transport operator in greater Stockholm. The deal is yet another move in Stockholm's ambition since 15 years to run its public transport system without fossil fuels.
For Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL), the deal means a continued investment in environmentally adapted public transport. Stockholm already has the world's largest fleet of ethanol buses, which operate mainly in the inner city. The new buses will be put into suburban operation during autumn 2005. When deliveries are concluded in early 2006, around 350 ethanol buses will be operating in the SL fleet.
The buyers of the remaining 160 buses include several of the main bus operators in Sweden, e.g. Connex, Busslink and Buss i Vast. All buses will be delivered during 2005 and 2006.
"The success can largely be attributed to the fact that Scania now has a complete range of city and intercity buses," says Leif Nystrom, responsible for bus and coach sales at Scania Sverige AB, Scania's Swedish sales and service company.
200 of the buses are Scania's own low-entrance bus, the Scania OmniLink and 70 of these are articulated. The buses will be manufactured by Scania Omni, Scania's subsidiary for complete buses.
Service and maintenance agreements for 160 buses in Stockholm Scania's subsidiary Scania Sverige AB has also signed a 4-year service and maintenance agreement for 160 of the buses to Connex, operating from two depots in Stockholm.
"The agreement entails handling all service and maintenance, as well as damage repairs on all buses at the two depots, and we also take over the existing workshops and their staff," says Leif Nystrom.
More than 200 Scania ethanol buses in Stockholm, "Since 1990, Scania has supplied around 450 ethanol buses to Swedish cities, of which more than 200 are rolling in the inner city of Stockholm."
The ethanol buses to SL are equipped with Scania's 9-litre 230 hp ethanol engine, which since many years has exhaust emissions equivalent to Euro 4.
Ethanol is produced from biomass and is thus a renewable fuel. Ethanol has lower energy content than diesel fuel. Fuel consumption is therefore higher, generally between 50 and 75 percent, and ethanol must be adapted accordingly, e.g. in terms of tank capacity.
Buses operating on biogas or natural gas Scania also extends its modular range of city and intercity buses with a gas-fuelled version of the Scania OmniLink. Scania's 260 hp 9-litre engine has been converted to operate on gas. Running on wither natural gas or biogas, the engine is equipped with an oxidising catalyst.
Already now, the exhaust emissions of Scania's gas engine are at the level of Euro 5, which becomes mandatory in 2009.
For further information, please contact Gunnar Boman, Corporate Relations, telephone +46 8 55389510, email gunnar.boman@scania.com.
Scania is one of the world's leading manufacturers of trucks and buses for heavy transport applications, and of industrial and marine engines. With 30,000 employees and production facilities in Europe and Latin America, Scania is one of the most profitable companies in its sector. In 2004, sales totalled SEK 56.7 billion and income after financial items was SEK 6.0 billion. Scania products are marketed in about 100 countries worldwide and some 95 percent of Scania's vehicles are sold outside Sweden. Bus chassis production takes place in Sweden, Brazil and Mexico. Bodybuilding takes place in Poland and Russia.
Scania press releases are available on the Internet, www.scania.com.
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