Kamaz is building a plant for electric buses in Moscow

The Russian commercial vehicle manufacturer Kamaz is building a production plant for electric buses and their components in Moscow, as well as an R&D innovation centre focusing on improving the quality of electric passenger transport.

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Around 14 million euros will be invested in the project. The company has now signed a corresponding agreement with Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. At least 500 electric buses per year are to be produced in the Russian capital in the future.

Last year the Moscow bus operator Mosgortrans commissioned Kamaz and GAZ to supply 100 electric buses each, as well as the respective charging infrastructure. In April of this year, Moscow ordered a further 100 electric buses and 36 fast charging stations from Kamaz. The contract provides for the delivery of the electric buses for a period of 15 years, which were developed according to the city’s requirements.

Electric buses have been running on the streets of the Russian capital since autumn 2018. The city plans to buy 300 electric buses per year in the 2019-2020 period. From 2021, Moscow will only procure electric buses and completely discontinue the purchase of diesel buses.

Update 28 April 2021: The Russian commercial vehicle manufacturer Kamaz has now opened the announced production facility for electric buses in Moscow. In the first phase, an assembly line for the production of up to 500 e-buses per year will be commissioned at the SWARZ production facility in the Sokolniki district. In the second phase, Kamaz plans to build another production building with an area of about 3,000 square metres, which will be able to produce about 200 more electric buses per year.

With a production capacity of 700 e-buses per year and the halls for maintenance work also planned, SWARZ will become one of the largest electric bus centres in the country, according to the Russian Ministry of Transport.

The first eleven prototypes have already been assembled, and the first series-produced vehicles are to be used on the roads from May. As reported, the bus fleet in Moscow is to be completely converted to electric buses by 2030. Recently, the Moscow-based company Drive Electro also announced its intention to start series production of purely electric trucks this year.

Update 1 June 2021: The first 25 electric buses manufactured at the SWARZ factory are now ready for service. According to Kamaz, ten of these will enter regular service in the Russian capital at the beginning of this month. According to Maksim Liksutov, Moscow’s deputy mayor for transport, 60 per cent of the new electric buses for the capital that will be delivered this year will be assembled there. The short production and logistics routes should make the use of the vehicles even more sustainable.

busworld.org, (Kamaz bus order) russland.capital (new Moscow plant, in Russian), update info via email, urbantransportnews.com (update 01.06.2021)