350 e-buses up for grabs in Belgium, where public transport company De Lijn is about to issue a tender with value up to 230 million euros (vehicles + charging infrastructures). 60 vehicles are expected to be operation within 2021, according to report on The Brussels Times.
Flemish carrier has been heavily investing in alternative drive buses since a few years now, with large batch of hybrid buses ordered with VDL (200 units in December 2019, another batch of 70 in 2020). This will be the first tender for pure battery-electric buses.
De Lijn plans to buy nearly 1,000 electric buses over 15 years. To this extent, last year the operator demanded an additional financing to the Flemish government, as the massive introduction of electric buses would require an investment of over one billion euro, much more than the resources currently planned.
