3/4 of electric buses remain parked due to lack of chargers

A truly comical situation has occurred with electric buses in Greece: only a third of them are in motion due to a lack of chargers. About 94 of the 140 electric buses remained parked until the problem was resolved.

Electric buses of a Chinese company Yutong Buus recently integrated into the Athens city transport fleet in an attempt to modernize public transport. However, so far only a third of the cars have been thrown into action to serve the capital's passengers since last Friday, while the rest are “patiently” waiting for their… turn.

Citing sources from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, media reported that the number of electric buses that will ply the streets of Athens and Piraeus will gradually increase, with the ultimate goal of putting all new buses into service by the end of August.

The decision to put into operation only 46 vehicles was not accidental, since the temporary facilities with 10-12 chargers, which are set up at five railway stations (Renti, Agios Dimitrios, Platia Attikis, Roof and Anthousa as a reserve), are not enough to to cover the charging needs of all buses on regular routes.

Although the initial planning provided for their full, rather than gradual inclusion in the program, the block that the Court of Auditors placed when signing a contract worth 9.85 million euros (including VAT) with the company EYDROMOS ATEwhich was awarded project contractor status to install a permanent charging infrastructure, resulted in a schedule delay of approximately 2 months.

It should be noted that this was followed by a request to withdraw the decision from OSY (road transport), which provided the necessary clarifications and data to the Court of Auditors, which paved the way for the signing of a contract providing for the permanent installation of a total of 70 chargers with a capacity of 90 kW at four car depots organizations (except Antusa).

However, OSY management categorically denies that the gradual inclusion of electric buses in the regular route schedule was decided due to a lack of chargers, arguing that it was chosen for reasons of smoother operation, and at the same time does not exclude the possibility that all 140 electric buses will hit the streets of Athens already in June.

A similar picture is observed in the urban transport of Thessaloniki, where at the beginning of the week the premiere of about 7 electric buses out of 110 purchased by OASTH (Organization of Urban Transport of Thessaloniki) took place. Although the situation is slightly better than in the charging infrastructure competition, integration is still slow.

In any case, however, the bar for updating the bus fleet is set high: thanks to a series of public tenders and promotions that began in 2019, the goal is to have 1,500 vehicles powered by new technologies on the streets of Athens by 2027, they say mass media.

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