Electric bus

The electric buses will be circulating city streets by May – Trial runs are currently underway and have been successful

Test runs began in Athens on Tuesday for 32 of 140 new electric buses that road transport organization OSY has bought from Chinese company Yutong.

Based on the supply contract, they will have to circulate 18 hours a day, without passengers, until they complete 5,000 km in daily traffic conditions.

Within May electric buses will be on the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Transport responsible for Transportation Christina Alexopoulou emphasized in an interview on Wednesday with Real FM radio.

As she stated, the objective is to upgrade the fleets of both cities with each new bus entering service replacing an older one.

The first 140 electric buses from Chinese company Yutong may have arrived in Athens last weekend - plus another 110 in Thessaloniki - and the time is approaching for their circulation on the road, but Kathimerini understands there are issues with the accompanying equipment.

Data from a Japanese auto industry association show that China overtook Japan as the world's largest vehicle exporter last year.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association reported Japan exported 4.42 million vehicles in 2023, up 16 percent from a year earlier, while domestic auto sales totaled nearly 4.78 million vehicles.

A tender for the purchase of another 100 electric buses (12 meters long with an autonomy of 135 kilometers) has been declared void after the offer by the sole bidder, China's BYD, was deemed not to meet requirements, according to a decision signed by Transport Minister Christos Staikouras.

The electric buses that we can see more and more often in Sofia are a step towards the modernization and improvement of public transport, especially when we talk about air quality. But how warm is it inside in the winter? An experiment showed that in the electric bus number 60 it is about 6 degrees Celsius.

Turkish carmaker Karsan has introduced Turkey's first domestically produced driverless electric bus, Karsan Atak Electric.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Feb. 1 attended a test drive of the vehicle.

"Autonomous bus producers will promote Turkey and Turkish brands globally," he said.

Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank was also present at the event.

As part of the drive to introduce eco-friendly public transport, a second electric bus, which will be tested in Athens with passengers on board, was delivered to Attica's bus and trolley bus operator, OSY on Friday. As of Saturday and for two months, the Solaris Urbino 12 Electric demo bus will transport passengers free of charge between Pangrati and Kypseli.

Three contracts for the supply of 137 electric vehicles for the improvement of air quality in Sofia have been signed with the Sofia Municipality, the Ministry of Environment and Water announced.