TBB February 2022

pain – The Nelec electric bus by Carrocera Castrosua S.A. of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, has been awarded the title of Ecological Bus of the Year 2022 at Spain’s National Transport Awards, beating nine other nominees to the award. This adds to the Red Dot Design Award that the Nelec received in 2021. The Nelec is built on an electric chassis from Scania AB and is offered in 11m to 13m options.
Furthermore, the Nelec’s low floor or low entry offerings can be equipped with two or three doors. Castrosua stated that it had chosen Scania’s electric chassis due to an historic partnership between the two firms, however, Castrosua is able to produce bodies for all platforms and chassis-builders. Castrosua’s Nelec named Spain’s Ecological Bus of the Year 2022 In addition to Nelec, Castrosua’s range of vehiclesincludes the New City city bus, the Magnus .H and  Magnus .E intercity buses, and the Stellae coach. Since 2015, it has sold 1050 units of the New City, with the vast majority built on chassis from Scania and MAN.
Castrosua operates two factories, one at its
headquarters in Santiago de Compostela, and
another in Villagarcía de Arosa. The Santiago plant
has a production capacity of two buses per day,
with an additional one bus per day produced at
the Villagarcía facility, which is currently optimised
to produce its long-distance vehicles.
Over the past five years, Castrosua has sold
2,200 units, made up of 55% urban vehicles, 40%
intercity, and 5% coaches. The firm states that its
average market share of the Spanish market over
the past five years stands at 16.5%, with 87% of its
sales for the domestic market. The remaining 13%
of its vehicles have been destined for export, most
recently to the United Arab Emirates, Lithuania,
and South Korea.