Electric buses: Berlin forced to extend tender period

Berlin’s public transport company BVG issued a tender to procure 45 electric buses from next year but faces now difficulties due to a lack of applications, according to the “Berliner Zeitung”. Thus, just one manufacturer made an offer.

Two other companies asked the BVG to postpone the deadline and indeed that is what the BVG just did now. The tender call involves 30 electric single deckers to be ready by 2018 and another 15 electric bendy buses including charging infrastructure are to follow by 2019, as reported. The BVG is willing to investment a double-digit million sum.

Since 2015, the German capital successfully runs four electric buses by Solaris. The pilot was not without challenges (we reported) but the buses have since been back on track. BVG has also joined Hamburg Hochbahn to form a buyers’ community with increased order volumes (we reported).

Next summer, a delegation of Berlin’s senate and the BVG will do an “information trip” to China, where the transition towards electric buses is progressing much faster.
berliner-zeitung.de (in German)