1,000 e-buses to be procured within an Italian State-backed centralized tender

1,000 electric buses up for grabs in Italy within a state-backed centralized tender. The procurement is set to be issued on 27th October by CONSIP (the central purchasing department of the Italian public administration), that earlier this year has awarded a similar amount of gas-powered buses. The news is reported on Italian media Autobusweb. The […]

By Editorial Staff

1,000 electric buses up for grabs in Italy within a state-backed centralized tender. The procurement is set to be issued on 27th October by CONSIP (the central purchasing department of the Italian public administration), that earlier this year has awarded a similar amount of gas-powered buses. The news is reported on Italian media Autobusweb.

The initiative will allow public administrations to take over the vehicles, taking advantage of the resources provided by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

This initiative is part of a broader catalogue of ‘ready-to-use’ contracts for the purchase of different types of city and suburban buses, with different fuels for a total of 2,900 vehicles (of which more than 60% have alternative fuels – electric, methane, hybrid). On these contracts, the administrations have already made purchases for 1,700 vehicles (of which more than 50 per cent with alternative fuels), while the number of vehicles that can be ordered to date is about 1,200.

Highlights

Depot-first autonomy for European smartbuses

For more than a decade, autonomous buses have been “almost ready.” Demonstrations with safety drivers began around 2015, and ten years later, this is still largely what we see. The reason is not a lack of ambition – it is physics, safety, and economics. Autonomous buses on city streets a...

Related articles