Scania has sold 85 ethanol-powered articulated buses to Busslink, operator of bus services for Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL), the regional public transport company in the Swedish capital.

“A continued commitment to ethanol power is consistent with SL’s decision to buy only buses that operate on renewable fuels starting in 2010,” says Leif Nyström, who is in charge of bus and coach sales at Scania’s Swedish distributor, Scania Sverige AB.

The order from Busslink is Scania Sverige’s largest single bus transaction in the Swedish market since 2004. Scania’s bus sales in Sweden began 2009 very strongly, and some 100 such vehicles have been registered so far this year.

Stockholm already boasts the world’s largest fleet of ethanol buses providing service in the central areas of the city. The 85 buses for Busslink will go into service on routes supplied from depots in the northern and southern suburbs of Stockholm. Forty of the buses are specifically designed for urban traffic while the others are adapted for regional service. Deliveries will begin this autumn and will be completed during the spring of 2010.

Scania has more than 20 years of experience with ethanol buses in practical operation. The company has delivered 600 such buses, about 500 of them to Swedish cities. Internationally, there is now growing interest in ethanol-operated vehicles. In recent years, Scania has also delivered ethanol buses for commercial service in Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Norway and elsewhere.

Ethanol accounts for around 90 per cent of renewable vehicle fuels available today. Compared to a conventional diesel engine, ethanol-powered vehicles can reduce fossil carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90 per cent.

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