VDL leads BYD with Dutch electric orders

VDL Bus has won its biggest order yet for electric buses in its native Netherlands, where government policy is for all new vehicles to be zero-emission by 2025.

Transdev-owned Connexxion has ordered 100 articulated Citea SLFA electrics for the Amstelland-Meerlanden concession in the province of North Holland for use on bus rapid transit and other services serving Schiphol and the surrounding area. They will be similar to 43 that sister company Hermes already operates in the South East Brabant concession and will make Transdev Netherlands’ electric fleet the largest in Europe.

Also in the Netherlands, Keolis-owned Syntus has ordered nine 12m eBus electric buses from Chinese-owned BYD, which has opened its first European plant in Hungary. The three-door single-deckers are due in service in December, two in the city of Amersfoort and seven in Almere, where two BYD demonstrators are operating until the new buses arrive.

Connexxion has also ordered diesel buses for the Amstelland-Meerlanden concession, selecting 18 Futura FDD2 14.1m double-deck 86-seaters for BRT services between Haarlem and Amsterdam South and 40 DAF-powered Solaris Urbino 18 bendybuses for the R-net system. This latter order is the first from the Netherlands for the Polish manufacturer.

■ Turin operator GTT has increased its order for BYD eBuses from 16 to 20, with the first due in service in the Italian city in September.