The electric bus factory in Ciorogârla will be the first of its kind in the country, and will also turn Romania into a bus exporter, as BMC wants to deliver abroad. Domestically, it is already an established name in public transport supply, having delivered thousands of buses and minibuses in 20 years. For electric buses alone, BMC has supplied 500 units internally, out of a total of 1,000 sold in Romania. These were Granton ZTE Smart Auto models, manufactured in China.
According to her, the start of electric bus production will create 200 jobs in the first phase. With the second facility the number of employees will rise to 7-800. Basically, one man per bus produced per year, the director is quoted as saying. As for the price, Colacea says that production of the bus in Romania means cost savings (3-8%) compared to importing it from China. So far, the 500 buses that BMC has sold in Romania – Granton ZTE Smart Auto model – have been sold locally at an average price of around 450,000 euros per unit (the price varies depending on the options required by the beneficiary).
In Bucharest, which is the largest contract to date and completed four months ahead of schedule, the buses were 12-metre category, with a minimum range of 200 kilometres between two successive charges (full charging takes 3-4 hours – ed.), fully electric traction, autonomously driven with a Rechargeable Electrical Energy Storage System (RESES), battery packs and fully lowered floor over the entire length of the vehicle, three double doors, air conditioning.
Starting the construction of electric buses near Bucharest means that Romania will join the select circle of European countries producing electric buses. There are only a few countries in the EU that can boast production and exports of electric buses, such as Germany (Mercedes, MAN), the Czech Republic (SOR), the Netherlands (Ebusco), Poland (Solaris), Sweden(Volvo and SCANIA). Across the EU border, Turkey is another major producer of electric buses. China is by far the world’s largest manufacturer, larger than all other manufacturers put together.