The historic city of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, is located on the River Rhine, which provides not only a picturesque setting, but a reliable source of hydroelectric power—an ideal source of green energy for the city’s new electric buses.

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Transport (the equivalent of our Federal Transit Administration) has tested and certified the electric buses, made by Spanish manufacturer Irizar. Further tests of the charging infrastructure are now underway.

Local transit agency VBSH ordered the two Irizar electric buses in March 2019, and installed a temporary charging station on one of the city’s main streets at the beginning of August. It is now in the process of installing charging infrastructure at the bus depot, which will have both an overnight charging station and a rapid charging station.

The city pans to deploy fifteen Irizar e-buses—seven 12-meter ie models and eight articulated ie tram models.

Irizar’s e-buses are in-house productions—almost all the components, including the electric powertrain, electronics, battery packs and communications systems, are built by companies belonging to the Irizar Group. The buses are assembled in Aduna, near San Sebastian, in the Basque region of northern Spain.

Source: Sustainable Bus