The Hungarian government is to finance the acquisition of 3,000 electric buses in the current governing cycle, the minister leading the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Thursday.
Gergely Gulyás said the cabinet discussed the bust strategy on Wednesday in relation to the proposals submitted by László Palkovics, Minister of Innovation and Technology. The goal is to ensure the highest number of buses from local production and to make the switch to electric buses in public transport.
This also serves CO2 emission reduction purposes, and allows pollution to be reduced in large cities, he added. Although electric buses are more expensive at the moment, the cabinet is hopeful that as domestic manufacturing gathers momentum, the prices will also decline.
That’s all we have learned from the government info held by Gulyás, but we should recall that Electrobus Europe, a Hungary-based joint venture of prestigious local bus maker Ikarus and China’s CRRC Urban Traffic has only recently unveiled their first purely electric bus made in Hungarian-Chinese co-operation.
The prototype, named CityPioneer (the commercial name is IC 1211 U), was introduced in December 2018 in Székesfehérvár, some 60 kilometres west of Budapest.
CRRC provide the driveline, while Ikarus is responsible of the body. The project consists in a low floor 12-meter bus with a 313 kWh battery pack (same size than the ebus showed in Hannover), formula LFP. Under the bonnet there is a permanent magnet synchronous motor capable of 240 kW (tDrive MD2021). It can travel 200-260 kilometers on a single charge and can be recharged in 5-6 hours.
According to the statement of Ikarus Chairman Gábor Széles, the serial production of the electric bus is expected to begin in 2019. He also noted that the price of a 12-metre, diesel-engine bus is between HUF 70 m and HUF 80 mn, while the electric bus will cost about HUF 120 mn. He stressed, however, that the payback period for the e-bus is much shorter. The company plans to manufacture at least 200 buses this year, 1,000 in 2020 and eventually 3,000 annually.
Széles also said that besides Székesfehérvár, Szeged, Zalaegerszeg and Miskolc are also showing interest in the e-bus, but first the manufacturer would need to prove to coach group Volán that the bus is suitable for regular urban service. The IC 1211 U prototype had test runs on the roads of Székesfehérvár at the start of this year, and it will be put into regular passenger service on the routes deemed best.
We should also note that China’s BYD has already delivered its first e-bus to the town of Salgótarján. The e-bus was manufactured in BYD’s Komárom-based (northern Hungary) plant inaugurated in April 2017.
After its operation was launched, BYD Electric Bus and Truck Hungary Ltd. planned to manufacture 400 vehicles annually and employ 300 workers when producing at full capacity. The HUF 6.2 billion investment received HUF 925 million worth of non-refundable state aid.
The 12-meter electric bus manufactured for urban use in the industrial park in Komárom, northern Hungary. Source: MTI/ Csaba Krizsán
That’s one giant order
Gulyás said the cabinet wants to acquire 3,000 electric buses in the next three years, which is to exert a favourable impact on the Hungarian bus manufacturing industry. We need to highlight, however, that this is a massive quantity and it is way over current capacities. Electric buses are manufactured in Hungary by BYD in Komárom, as we mentioned before, and Ikarus is also planning to follow suit with its Chinese partner. The other players, not many of them are out there, manufacture buses with traditional engines, and their annual output capacities are extremely low for now.
About 450 to 500 buses may be manufactured in Hungarian plants this year
, said Sándor Vincze-Pap, President of the Association of Hungarian Bus Manufacturers in March. He remarked that this is 150-180 units higher than the 2018 volume, i.e. the growth could reach about 30%.
We should also be aware that the National Bus Procurement Committee (NABB) established in 2016 plans to invite tenders for the production of 700 to 800 buses in 2019, which means that the domestic market can fulfil only about half of the demand. Plans are already mulled that this year’s target will be lowered so that Hungary would not have to buy buses from abroad.
Vincze-Papp also reminded that the sector has almost completely fallen apart in the last three decades. Whereas it did show recovery in the last three years and market resources are opening up, the sector is only partially fit to face the 2020 market liberalisation (until then state-operated routes are tendered among service providers) and to meet demand generated by the changes.
In view of the above, it is unclear how local manufacturers would be able to meet such a mammoth demand in such a short time. Especially that Gulyás talked about the procurement of electric buses only.
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