The order was placed by the public transport company Opplandstraffikk in Lillehammer and it intends to test its viability in the city by plying it for two years on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 routes in the city. The buses are expected to be delivered during the second quarter of 2019 and their operations will be handled by Unibuss. As per the plan, the buses will be introduced in the regular traffic only after the completion of the test period.

The electric buses are part of Oppland municipality’s aim to become climate-neutral by 2025. The vehicles are being sold as a complete turnkey solution with Volvo providing all maintenance for the vehicles as well as their batteries, at a fixed monthly cost.

The buses will be charged in the depot via a 150 kW CCS charger. The CCS charger will be supplied by ABB. Volvo claims that the energy consumption of its electric buses is about 80 percent lower than for corresponding diesel models.

Besides Lillehammer, the Norwegian cities of Drammen and Trondheim had already bought Volvo’s fully electric bus. The order for 25 Volvo 7900 Electric to Trondheim in the autumn of 2017 is the biggest order for Volvo’s electric buses to date.

In February 2016, Volvo had introduced the 8400 hybrid city bus in India which was inducted into the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT). In March 2018, Volvo received an order for 100 8400 hybrid buses from Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). Volvo is already providing electric buses to countries such as Sweden, Britain, Luxemburg and Poland.

In addition to the all-electric Volvo 7900 Electric, the Volvo Buses range of electrified vehicles includes hybrid buses and electric hybrid (plug-in hybrid) models. Volvo has stated that it has sold over 4000 electrified buses around the world.