English.chinabuses.com: Volvo Bus Corporation and Shanghai Sunwin Bus Corp., a joint venture (JV) co-funded by Volvo and SAIC, recently inked a deal of providing 1,500 Volvo buses to Shanghai-based Bashi Group. With a total value of SEK 1.3 billion (about USD 165.322 million), the new bus fleet will be delivered to its customer and put into service before the opening of Shanghai Expo.

The exterior of Volvo B7RLE

Under the theme of “Better City, Better Life”, Shanghai Expo will officially kick off on May 1, 2010. To better prepare the much-anticipated event and create a highly efficient public transport system, Shanghai Municipal Government has spent billions in developing and purchasing green vehicles to give the city’s urban area a face-lift.

The interior of Volvo B7RLE

After securing the deal, Lars Blom, General Director of Volvo Bus Corporation China Operation pointed out the company and its JV, Shanghai Sunwin will not only provide eco-friendly buses to help the metropolis to ease air pollution, but also offer a package of state-of-art public transport solutions to the city.

 A Volvo bus rolling in Shanghai

According to the deal, about half of 1500 units of new buses will be directly provided by Volvo Bus Corp., including such well known models as Volvo B7RLE and Volvo B6R while the rest, powered by traditional diesel engines, ultra-capacitors, or hybrid propulsion systems, will be assembled at Sunwin plant.