Hydrogen passenger bus will soon appear on the streets of Athens

In September or a little later, the Greek capital’s public transport fleet will be replenished with the first hydrogen bus.

Earlier, a few months ago, the inhabitants of Athens were able to appreciate the merits of the first electric buses. And very soon there will be hydrogen. As Stefanos Agiasoglu, CEO of ΟΣΥ, told the Economist conference yesterday, the company will partner with Δημόκριτο, which has already established the first filling station for small hydrogen cars in Greece, and with Solaris.

Test operation of the hydrogen bus is planned to take place on the Ano Kypseli-Pagrati-Kesariani line (Άνω Κυψέλη – Παγκράτι – Καισαριανή) or on the Omonia – Kolibitirio ring route (Ομόνοια – Κολυμτ).

The General Director of ΟΣΥ also spoke at the conference about the initiatives of the Greek government and the Ministry of Transport to renew the company’s vehicle fleet through an ongoing international tender. He stated that the tender is in the first stage, and the second stage will soon follow, with the aim of obtaining the first new buses in 2023:

“The introduction of electric buses is related to the reorganization of the business in the company, from the restructuring of routes to stations, with a focus on innovation, and in this context, test routes with a hydrogen bus are being introduced.”

Regarding the large tender for the supply of new buses to Athens and Thessaloniki, it is noted that the first of the five parts of the tender was declared unsuccessful (100-120 hybrid buses). Now the main tender for the remaining four is ongoing, so the tender is for 650 buses. In accordance with incoming information from the commercial vehicle market, the following mandatory proposals were submitted:

1. The Italian companies Industria Italiana Autobus and IVECO submitted bids for the supply of 200 simple 12-meter EURO VI CNG vehicles.
2. IVECO has submitted a tender for the supply of 100 18-meter EURO VI CNG articulated city vehicles.
3. Irizar, Van Hool, IVECO and BYD applied for the supply of 100 single-seat urban electric vehicles 12 meters long with a minimum autonomy of 135 km.
4. Irizar, BYD and YUTONG have submitted bids for the supply of 250 12-meter urban electric vehicles with a minimum range of 180 km.

According to information from the commercial vehicle market, the technical evaluation of two sections for CNG buses will be completed by August, the completion of the corresponding process for electric buses is likely to be delayed until the end of the summer. In any case, the main goal is to announce contractors and sign contracts before the end of the year.

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