Budapest public transport operator to add 160 electric buses to fleet

Electrobus Europe is a distribution partner of Hungarian Ikarus electric buses, which is in partnership with Chinese manufacturer Yutong. The public transport operator selected the bus manufacturer because it submitted the most economically advantageous bid, as the company wrote. Competing proposals were also submitted by Solaris, Skoda and the Bozankaya-Medcom consortium from Turkey. The order includes both solo trolleybuses as well as articulated variants.

This is the second major success for Yutong on the European trolleybus market, as the company recently received an order for 22 buses in Bucharest. In the final round of bidding in Budapest, the consortium prevailed over Bozankaya after competitors such as Skoda and Solaris were eliminated.

While the tender process is complete, DailyNewsHungary writes that the project’s future remains uncertain, as the necessary funding has not been secured. A first phase has been guaranteed, which covers a total of 40 vehicles, including 16 solo and 24 articulated trolleybuses. From there, the contracting agency can decide how it wants to proceed. However, considering that BKK wants to double the length of Budapest’s 155-km trolleybus network by 2030, it is likely that more trolleybuses are planned.

Budapest’s BKK has been working to electrify its fleet for some time, and has taken advantage of several manufacturers, for example, with an order from the end of 2021 for 48 electric buses from Solaris and Skoda. One year later, another tender was published for the acquisition of another 50 electric buses.

magyarbusz.info (in Hungarian), dailynewshungary.com