Two in every three new electric buses remain parked
It will take months for all 140 new electric buses Greece has just acquired to be put into service, with officials from the Ministry of Transport pointing to late August or early September. Until then the new buses will hit the streets at various stages.
“All 140 electric buses have been integrated into the transport project of the capital. Of these, 46 buses today – for the first time – serve citizens. And in the coming weeks, their number is expected to double,” the ministry said in a statement last Friday.
In fact, out of the 140 buses, only 46 can now circulate, with the other 94 being parked at bus garages. The reason is that the project of permanently installing the charging infrastructure has not been completed in time.
While operating company OSY has procured 140 electric buses from China, the permanent installation of the charging stations that would allow for their smooth operation and circulation on the streets of Athens has not yet been completed. As the buses arrived and in order to find a way to get them into circulation, OSY built a temporary facility of 10 chargers in terminals for charging, which is insufficient to have them all charged, so 32 of the 140 buses were put into trial operation for a month.
The ministry attributes the delays in the project – which concerns the installation of 70 slow-charging appliances with two sockets at four terminals – to the clarifications requested by the State Audit Council. “While the project in Thessaloniki needs just 35 days to complete, in Athens, the court delayed us for comments and clarifications, so we are 1.5 months behind Thessaloniki,” a ministry source says.
However, even the calling of the tender was delayed, with the deadline for the submission of bids – after the original date was postponed – being set for early January. Based on the announcement, the time for completion of supply and installation is set at three months from the proclamation.
OSY sources counter that the fact only one in three buses circulates is “because we want to make measurements in real conditions.”
