Italy launches €650 million tender for 600 electric buses

Italy’s central purchasing body Consip has launched a €650 million tender for 600 electric buses, ranging from minibuses to articulated models. Delivery will cover urban, intercity, and regional needs.

The procurement is organised into five main lots covering the full spectrum of vehicle sizes, with the intention of accelerating zero-emission fleet rollouts across urban and intercity routes. The tender foresees 70 urban minibuses, split between 30 units at five metres and 40 units at six metres in length. Both sub-lots specify plug-in battery electric configurations.

In the midibus segment, Consip is seeking 90 eight-metre buses (€88.4m) and 50 nine-metre buses (€52.5m), also with plug-in charging. An additional 90 units are allocated for ten-metre midibuses valued at €100.3 million.

The highest-volume category is for standard 12-metre buses, with 190 units for urban operations (€223.6m) and a further 60 Class II interurban buses (€67.8m) tailored for regional and longer-distance routes. All are specified with plug-in charging.

Finally, the tender includes 50 articulated buses in the 18-metre class. Of these, 35 vehicles will use plug-in charging (€51.1m) and 15 units will be equipped with pantograph systems (€22.8m) to enable high-power opportunity charging on dedicated infrastructure.

Italy is one of the booming electric bus markets in Europe. In 2024, the fleet in the country grew by 1,000 electric buses. Last year, one in five newly registered buses there had an electric drivetrain on board. For city buses, the figure was even higher at 40 per cent.

Consip has played a pivotal role in Italian fleet renewal programmes in recent years. Its most extensive zero-emission tender to date was issued in 2022 for 1,000 electric buses. In May 2023, it launched a tender for 500 electric buses, including hydrogen fuel cell models.

With this latest 600-unit tender, Italy continues to implement its National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which allocates substantial funding to decarbonise public transport in line with EU climate objectives. The fleet mix aims to meet diverse operational requirements, supporting municipalities and regional operators in replacing diesel buses with modern zero-emission alternatives.

autobusweb.com, trasporti-italia.com, consip.it (all in Italien), sustainable-bus.com