The Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona (TMB) has ordered a total of 75 MAN Lion’s CNG City buses from MAN Truck & Bus. In addition to the natural gas buses, 30 hybrid buses have also been commissioned. “This means TMB’s most recent public call for tender ended with great success for us, and we are incredibly happy to have been awarded the entire contract,” said Rudi Kuchta, Head of Product & Sales Bus and Speaker Business Area Bus at MAN Truck & Bus. MAN will deliver the vehicles to the Spanish transport operators by the end of the year. This includes 49 natural gas buses of the MAN Lion’s City type (A21), each with a length of 12 metres, and 26 articulated buses (A23), each 18 metres in length, likewise powered with natural gas.
Once the 105 modern city buses have been delivered, over 50 percent of the TMB fleet, which is currently around 1,140 buses strong, will be MAN vehicles. “We are very happy; after all, this development confirms that we are on the right track. The renewed order strengthens our excellent relationship with TMB, who are one of our European reference customers,” said Manuel Fraile, the head of the bus division at MAN Truck & Bus Iberia. He adds: “The fact that the transport operators are already using natural-gas-powered MAN buses demonstrates how satisfied the company is with this vehicle type, and that it has proven itself in the past few years.