FRANCE
Nantes Métropole has awarded a contract for the supply of new battery-electric buses to Iveco France. Operator of Nantes’ Naolib transport network Semitan will lead the electrification project, which is financed by the city region with a budget of €62 million, and expects to order around 70 buses.
The manufacturer will produce the new buses at its Heuliez plant in Rorthais, around 100 kilometres from Nantes. The order will be made up of 12m Heuliez GX 337 ELEC and 18m GX 437 ELEC models.
Around 30 standard buses will be put into service between late 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 at the operator’s Saint-Herblain depot. These will be followed by the 18 metre articulated and Busway vehicles from 2027, delivered to the company’s La Vertonne depot. Both depots will be upgraded with the necessary supporting infrastructure as part of the project.
President of Semitan Pascal Bolo said: “With the acquisition of these new electric buses, Semitan continues to support Nantes Métropole in its desire for an energy transition towards more sustainable mobility. For the company, this represents a challenge in terms of project management and maintenance, on one hand, to adapt the existing technical and operations centres to this new energy source without disrupting the daily operations of the Naolib network, and, on the other hand, to maintain these new vehicles, involving an evolution of technical skills within Semitan.”
Giorgio Zino, Head of Iveco Bus Europe Commercial Operations, said: “Iveco France’s expertise in clean vehicles allows us to maintain the trust of Semitan and Nantes Métropole. We thank them for choosing our latest generation electromobility offer, which represents a relevant and high-performance solution to meet the challenges of the energy transition. We are very proud of this new success, which reinforces a strong and long-standing partnership with our GX and Urbanway natural gas solutions and now our GX ELEC models.”
The Heuliez GX ELEC range is equipped with NMC batteries, each with a unit capacity of 69.3kWh. They are fitted with a Siemens Elfa III electric motor, which offers a maximum power of 310kW on the standard version and 375kW on the articulated version.
Semitan’s responsibility includes tram, Busway, and regular buses in the Greater Nantes area. It serves around 678,000 inhabitants of 24 municipalities, and in 2023 its services covered 29.8 million kilometres, facilitating 146.4 million journeys. The company’s fleet includes 543 vehicles, including 153 standard buses, 263 articulated buses, and 36 minibuses 94% of which runs on natural gas, and 6% is electric.
