Volkswagen Truck & Bus will be responsible for supplying more than 5,600 new vehicles in the most recent tender for the Caminho da Escola (Way to School in translation) program – the largest lot won by the company since the creation of this initiative by the Brazilian Government. The units can be ordered and delivered until the end of 2024 and will expand the school transport fleet in Brazil to ensure access to education for children and adolescents across the country. With the result, the company remains the absolute leader in the supply of vehicles for the program and also consolidates itself as the largest producer of school buses in the southern hemisphere.
In 2023, VWTB celebrates 15 years since its first units delivered to the initiative. During this period, there were more than 27 thousand VW buses, which transport about 27 million students in the most remote places in Brazil. These vehicles are distributed in more than five thousand municipalities, which means that almost all Brazilian cities have at least one Volksbus from Caminho da Escola.
"For us, as a leading supplier of school buses, this is a business of great relevance especially as it allows us to fulfill our purpose of offering sustainable transport solutions for all. It is a great honor to know that we are contributing to the access of Brazilian students to education, with a fleet that will now surpass the mark of 30 thousand Volkswagen units in this important program", says Roberto Cortes, president and CEO of Volkswagen Truck & Bus.
Tailor-made for school transport
Each model of Volkswagen Truck & Bus for the Caminho da Escola program is tailor-made. In its new line, the company has strengthened the operational advantages of the vehicles, including to deliver more active safety as standard, superior comfort and greater technology, as well as greater efficiency and fuel economy.
In this tender, Volkswagen will supply 4,000 vehicles in the ORE 1 configuration, built on the basis of the Volksbus 8.180E chassis, and another 1,600 Onurea units configured on the Volksbus 8.180. Both are new to the Volkswagen bus line and are equipped with a 3.8L ISF engine, four cylinders and a six-speed manual transmission, in addition to being equipped with air conditioning. They can carry up to 29 students and offer two accessibility options, being a lifting platform or a mobile armchair device.
Caminho da Escola program
Operated by the National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE), the Caminho da Escola program was created in 2007 to renew and expand the fleet of school vehicles, ensure safety and quality of student transportation, and contribute to the reduction of school dropouts, expanding, through daily transportation, access to and permanence in school for students enrolled in basic education in rural areas of the state and municipal networks. The program also standardizes school transportation vehicles, lowers vehicle prices, and increases the transparency of procurement