The tender for the renewal of the bus fleet in Athens and Thessaloniki continues, despite the withdrawal of some European companies in terms of the tender, with Ministry of transportation proceed with the announcement of the Chinese company Yutong Bus as a temporary contractor for the procurement site electric city buses (section 5). In particular, Yutong Bus, represented in Greece by the Kopelouzou group, will continue to supply 250 simple 12-meter electric city buses with a minimum mileage of 180 km and their accessories. The company was announced as a temporary contractor with a bid price of €440,720 plus VAT for each bus, with a total investment of €110.8 million (including chargers) plus VAT. Two more tenders for the supply of a total of 650 buses remain pending.

The wider competition, which has already started in 2021, was “split” into 5 sections due to the large number of vehicles, while experiencing several setbacks, cancellations, as well as appeals from participants. It is worth noting that last month the Italian-French company Iveco was announced as a preliminary contractor for part of the tender for the supply of 100 modular 18-meter compressed natural gas (CNG) city buses, and recently the situation has become clearer after the exclusion of three companies from among the participants of the competition due to the increase in the cost of production of buses and the subsequent non-renewal of their financial offer. Thus, the Spanish Irizar, represented by the Sarakaki group, withdrew from the tender section for the supply of 250 simple electric buses, and the Chinese BYD was previously excluded because its bid package was considered insufficient. As K also wrote, BYD filed an objection with the Unified State Contracting Service (EADISY), which, however, allegedly rejected the objection, leaving it out of competition. Of the ongoing tenders, one is for the supply of 200 simple 12-metre compressed natural gas (CNG) city buses, with Industria Italiana Autobus participating in the relevant tender after the withdrawal of Iveco, and the delivery of 100 simple electric buses of 12 meters with a minimum range of 135 km is also expected. .