Rendering of the Siemens Mobility Velaro Novo high-speed train for Renfe (AI-generated). Source: ARRI/X
Spain: National operator Renfe has named the German manufacturer the winner of its high-speed train tender, launched in the spring, ahead of Japan’s Hitachi Rail. Siemens Mobility bid €1.2 bln for the firm order for 30 seven-car EMUs, and €1.7 bln for the full contract including an option for 10 more trains.
Siemens Mobility has undertaken to deliver the first five distributed-traction trains within almost three and a half years of signing the contract, and the remainder within five years. The seven-car trains will have a top speed of 350 km/h and 520 seats in two classes, plus multi-purpose areas for luggage, bicycles and wheelchairs. They will be fitted with predictive and remote diagnostics, ETCS Level 1 and Level 2, automatic train protection and batteries for emergency running.
Renfe says it cannot afford delivery delays like those it has experienced with recent procurements. The operator’s newest high-speed trains, the Talgo Avril, entered service three years late. Meanwhile, there is still no Velaro Novo prototype produced: so far, only test running of an experimental intermediate car has been reported.
The Velaro Novo will be Siemens Mobility’s fifth generation of high-speed trains. Progress has been slow, as the train was first announced in the mid-2010s. The new platform is designed to offer 10% more capacity, be 15% lighter and use up to 30% less energy than the previous generation, thanks to a lighter carbody and improved aerodynamics.
The firm part of the Renfe contract will take Siemens Mobility’s Velaro Novo order book to 50 trainsets. Twenty trains on the platform are already under contract, for Brightline West’s Los Angeles – Las Vegas high-speed line in the USA and for VinSpeed in Vietnam.
Notably, the Velaro Novo trains for Spain come out far cheaper than the price announced a few days ago for California’s Merced – Bakersfield high-speed line. At the current euro exchange rate, the average cost per car under Renfe’s firm order is $6.5 mln. That is half the price offered to CHSRA for its firm order for three trains, and 27% less than the price of its option for 19 more.