A city in Romania will be the first to have electric buses equipped with Wi-Fi. The city hall of Cluj-Napoca has already organized the auction to buy 30 such buses after it had signed a deal with the Polish company Solaris in July last year. The first 11 electric buses will reach Cluj-Napoca in April end.
The price of an electric bus is about half million Euros, except VAT, and the expenses for the purchase of the first 11 buses have been covered by the Swiss Government (95%) and by the local budget (15%). The rest of the buses will be acquired by European and local funds.
The buses will have autonomy of 105 kilometers and a five-year guarantee. The producer will provide the maintenance costs and the replacement parts.
The buses will be charged in 13 fast and in-depot stations: in-depot charging will take 6 hours, while a fast one will take only ten minutes.
As the mayor of Cluj-Napoca Emil Boc said in July last year, the buses have a 78-seat capacity, have Wi-Fi on board, video cameras, air conditioning and special platform for disabled people.