Bozankaya to manufacture up to 70 trolleybuses for Prague

The Turkish manufacturer Bozankaya has received a record order for 70 new trolleybuses from the Prague transport company DPP. The competition is fuming. The Czech Skoda Group had previously objected to Bozankaya winning the contract.

The contract signed between DPP and Bozankaya is a five-year framework agreement for up to 70 vehicles worth around 50 million dollars. According to various media reports, it is the largest trolleybus tender in the history of the Czech Republic. The winner was Bozankaya, a Turkish manufacturer, and not the local hero, the Skoda Group. However, there were objections from the latter. The Skoda Group is said to have contested the award. One of its arguments was that the Turkish manufacturer may have received illegal public subsidies. Skoda also questioned the delivery times offered by Bozankaya. However, the objections were rejected.

Bozankaya will now supply trolleybuses for the Prague lines 131, 137, 176, 191 and 201, which are twelve-metre-long SNG T12 trolleybuses. The onboard traction batteries should enable up to 15 kilometres of off-peak travel. The buses will have three doors and can carry up to 82 passengers, 32 of whom will be seated.

Bozankaya is a company with roots in Germany. It was founded in 1989 as a research and development company by Murat Bozankaya in Germany and moved to Turkey in 2003 to invest in public transport. Today, the company operates a production facility in Sincan near Ankara, where it manufactures underground trains, trams, trolleybuses and electric buses. At Busworld Turkey last year, Bozankaya presented a new generation of electric buses with models in four lengths (10, 12, 18 and 25 metres). The manufacturer showed its early commitment to electric mobility in 2013 with the Sileo series, but later sold the rights to Karsan.

Meanwhile, trolleybuses from other manufacturers, such as the Skoda Group and Solaris, also operate in Prague. After the Czech capital had operated a historically grown trolleybus network for decades (1936 to 1972) and turned its back on this technology in the 1970s, the city introduced a new trolleybus system in 2017. However, this new network considers the battery-powered autonomy of the trolleybuses and thus includes sections without overhead lines.

turkiyetoday.com, dunya.com (in Turkish), urban-transport-magazine.com