100 electric busses to be put into circulation in Bucharest

Alina Oprea

5 December, 2023 at 6:32 PM

The general mayor of the capital, Nicuşor Dan, has announced that 100 electric busses have arrived at the STB Bujoreni depot and are to be put into circulation. Nicuşor Dan emphasizes that gradually the STB fleet will be completely replaced by the purchase of new vehicles to ensure civilized and modern public transport. Also, BMC Truck&Bus, the company that delivered 100 electric buses to Bucharest, will produce them, starting this year, a few kilometers from the Capital.

"65 new trams are running from this year, on the lines with the highest number of passengers, and by the spring of next year, all 100 Imperio trams will be delivered. In 2024, we will start the purchase of another 200 new trams. At the beginning of next year, the 100 Solaris trolleybuses will also arrive in the Capital", announced the mayor of the Capital.

In addition, the BMC Truck&Bus company will open, in the first half of next year, a production line for electric buses, the first of its kind in the country, in Ciorogârla, near Bucharest. Here it already has a 100% functional assembly plant that has been used in the past to produce diesel buses.

The unit in Ciorogârla will produce the EuroBus Diamond bus (which was also sold as a diesel version in Romania, until a few years ago) for the local market, but also for export. In the first phase, the production capacity at Ciorogârla will be 200 buses per year.

Ciorogârla will not only produce actual buses but also smaller units in the category of electric minibusses, which are increasingly in demand in Romania, for the transport of students, employees, and others. Thus, 6-meter, 8.5-meter, 9-meter, 10.8-meter, and 12-meter vehicles will be produced here. For export, the manufacturer from Ciorogârla targets regional markets, such as Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary, but also other markets, such as Italy or Spain, intending to participate in public tenders for the purchase of electric buses.

However, BMC plans, depending on the orders, to build a second facility, which will take the production up to 7-800 units per year, following an investment of €5 million.

"We own land in Ciorogârla with an area of 35,000 sqm, of which the current production unit, which we have invested €3 million, occupies only 10,000 sqm. We still have enough space for the second facility", says Silvia Colacea, executive director of BMC Truck&Bus.

According to her, the start of the production of electric buses will generate, in the first phase, the creation of 200 jobs. With the second facility, the number of employees will rise to 700-800.

Until now, the 500 buses that BMC sold in Romania were Granton ZTE Smart Auto models, manufactured in China, and were sold locally at an average price of around €450,000 per vehicle.

The company from Ciorogârla delivered to Bucharest (100 buses and charging stations), Constanta, Iași, Târgu-Mureș, Piatra-Neamț, Craiova, Tulcea and Suceava.