Benidorm tests a 100% electric bus with the same characteristics as the two that are going to be acquired for urban transport

For ten days Benidorm is going to test a 100% electric bus with identical characteristics to the two that the City Council has approved to acquire to incorporate them into the urban public transport fleet. Precisely on the occasion of the celebration of the day dedicated to urban transport within the European Mobility Week, the councillor of the area, José Ramón González de Zárate, accompanied by several members of the local government and personnel from the Grupo Avanza concessionaire, has approached to Plaza SSMM Reyes de España to see first-hand the benefits of this vehicle.

De Zárate explained that "this 12-meter bus has a range of up to 350 kilometres and a charging time of 3 hours at maximum power." From the Man brand, Lyon's City 12 E model, the vehicle is capable of transporting 27 people seated, 54 standing and 2 people with reduced mobility.

As he has indicated, "these ten days will allow us to test on the ground and on our streets how this vehicle works with a view to the next addition of two electric buses to our municipal fleet". In principle, "the intention of the City Council is that when the time comes, these two new vehicles will carry out the shuttle transport service between the main park-and-ride car parks located at the entrances to Benidorm and the city centre, providing users of these car parks with an option of clean transport in their internal displacements around the city”.

In this regard, he has advanced that the use of these 100% electric vehicles "involves lower consumption, less atmospheric pollution, zero noise emissions and cheaper maintenance costs". Thus, the use of each of these buses translates into a reduction of 146 tons of CO2 emissions per year and stops consuming nearly 47,000 litres of fuel.

De Zárate has detailed that "the process for the acquisition of these two vehicles is already underway" and "the forecast is to complete the purchase process before the end of the year so that they can already be operational in the first quarter of 2023 ”. The municipal investment stands at 1,040,000 euros.

In addition to the electric bus test, within the day of public transport, between 10:00 and 14:00, passengers who have taken bus line 3 at the town hall stop have been able to make the journey for free.

Balance ‘Citizen Card’
The Councilor for Mobility recalled that "we are still immersed in the issuance of the 'Citizen Card' among the population of Benidorm; a card-purse that is delivered with an initial charge of 10 euros to use in urban transport and that allows users to use the bus in advantageous conditions”. Since the beginning of the week, the application period has been open for people over 50 years of age, who can carry out this procedure in the space provided for the 'Citizen Card' on the ground floor of the City Hall, next to the General Registry.

According to the figures provided by De Zárate, "to date we have delivered more than 1,250 cards, mostly to people over 65 years of age, and there are nearly a thousand in the process of being processed." In addition, "the distribution has also begun among the young beneficiary population of the School Transport Voucher".