Metropolitan electric buses double in size – Auto – Kommersant

The Moscow City Hall announced the “biggest” contract for the supply of electric transport in Europe – the purchase of 1.2 thousand electric buses by the end of 2023. Now more than 1,000 pieces of equipment from the GAZ group and KamAZ are working on routes in Moscow, which will become suppliers this time as well. Both manufacturers, which fell under US and EU sanctions, previously used German engines in electric buses, in particular. Now they assure that they use components made only in Russia or in friendly countries.

Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov announced the upcoming purchases of 1.2 thousand electric buses. According to him, the equipment will be purchased by the end of 2023:

“This is the largest contract for the supply of such vehicles in Europe”

The Moscow Department of Transport reported that the new electric buses will be delivered in 2023-2024. In December 2022, Mr. Liksutov already announced the upcoming purchases of “about a thousand” pieces of equipment, without naming, however, specific dates. The mayor’s office assured that the new equipment will be equipped with electric heaters (now diesel stoves are used to heat the interior), which “will further reduce the negative impact on the environment.”

In December 2022, Moscow also decided to expand its charging network for city electric buses by launching a tender for the purchase of 64 ultra-fast devices. Stations must fully charge the 160-kilowatt electric bus batteries in 55 minutes, the tender documents said. In February 2023, the contract for their supply for 592.4 million rubles. was concluded with the design bureau “Globus” from Ryazan. It is noteworthy that in March 2022 the city already tried to purchase 127 similar stations for 1.6 billion rubles, but did not find suppliers. Note that in July 2022, Mosgortrans reported that 202 ultra-fast charging stations for electric buses were installed in the city.

Maxim Liksutov clarified that 1.2 thousand electric buses are planned to be purchased from the GAZ group and KamAZ.

In 2019, the GAZ group was unable to take part in the capital competition for the next batch of electric buses, losing the contract to KamAZ. Then the market said that the reason was the refusal of foreign suppliers to work with the group against the backdrop of sanctions against the assets of Oleg Deripaska. The GAZ Group was included in the SDN list of the US Treasury in 2018, and KamAZ in June 2022. Both companies are also under EU sanctions. At the same time, the models used in Moscow – LiAZ-6274 and KamAZ-6282 – used the electroportal bridge of the German concern ZF (produces, for example, automobile gearboxes for BMW, Jaguar and other brands). In August 2022, on the website of the Moscow State Technical University. N. E. Bauman, it was reported that one of the departments of the university had completed the development of an electric portal bridge for KamAZ electric buses (by order of the manufacturer). However, its implementation was not reported.

The press service of KamAZ announced its readiness to supply Moscow with 1,000 electric buses “in accordance with the concluded contract.” “All our equipment, including electric buses, is currently made from components produced in Russia or in friendly countries,” the concern assured. The GAZ Group also confirmed its readiness to supply electric buses to Moscow. “A very serious work was done at LiAZ to adapt an alternative aggregate base – in fact, an electric bus was re-created,” the company noted. Representatives of KamAZ also stressed that the KamAZ-6282 model “is not affected by the sanctions regime.”

Imported components in electric buses can become “a problem that will lead to a change in cost,” Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of Infoline-Analytics, makes it clear. “But they are not indispensable, they can be purchased in friendly countries. In addition, given the scale of orders that Moscow provides, localization of the production of components is also possible, ”the expert argues.

Alexander Voronov