Athens Transport: “Rating road” for the 140 electric buses of Athens and their chargers

A road race is held by the relevant Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and OSY (Road) to go out on the streets of Athens in Spring the first 140 to renew in the capital’s “urban fleet”. In a sense, however, this major issue for improving the provision of urban transport services relates to the parameter of the fate of a competition for the installation of chargers for the 140 new electric buses in Athens. In fact, today (14.3.2024), the Court of Auditors is being asked to examine the contract for installing the chargers that came in a package of buses from China. Initially, the Court of Auditors (E.S.) found a legal “vacuee” in the relevant contract, a request for revocation was submitted by the ICSY and the I.S. verdict on the substance will judge whether the new buses will be on the streets in May with installed chargers in the wagons or through a temporary solution, which they have already worked out in the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Contractor of the cost project EUR 9,85 million (VAT included) is EYDROS ATE. A total of 70 90 KW slow charge chargers are available to OSH along with 140 buses. The full charging of vehicles according to the specifications of the chargers shall be achieved in 4 hours. The Supreme Court had identified a restriction on competition but also insufficient market research. It is now called upon to consider the request to revoke the rejection of the OSH decision. For its part, the OCS sent clarifications to the Court of Auditors in the previous period in order to proceed with the signing of the contract. If everything goes well, then the electric buses will go “package” with their chargers and Athens will have 140 electric buses on its roads in the next two months. However, from OSY there is also an alternative – a temporary solution for the possibility that the E.S. will “take out a red card”. The backup plan provides for both the test phase and the first exit to the streets the temporary installation of 10-12 chargers in the wagons in Reddi, Agios Dimitrios, Attica and Ruff Square, plus Anthusa as a backup. The next period, the vehicle control is completed so that the first 38 will be put into testing on the streets of Athens without passengers. At this time all 200 drivers are trained to take a steering wheel in new vehicles, which also have modern monitoring systems.