8 cities are purchasing electric transport for a total of over UAH 4.5 million

photo - Taras Chuiko

NGO Vision Zero has monitored the information of tender platforms on the procurement of electric transport rolling stock for June-August 2023.
A total of 10 announced procurements for 166 units of rolling stock and a total amount of about UAH 4.6 billion were recorded, according to the Association of Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine.

Four procurements have already been completed, one has not taken place, and five are still ongoing. Out of 10 tenders, 6 are held under loan projects with the international financial institutions EIB and EBRD.

Procurement was announced by 8 cities: Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Zaporizhzhya, Chernivtsi, Lviv, Kharkiv and Vinnytsia.

The largest cities are purchasing new trolleybuses and trams. Several procurements concern used trolleybus rolling stock and new battery buses.

The largest procurement is the announcement by Chernivtsi city to purchase 50 trolleybuses with credit funds from the European Investment Bank.

"The active work of cities to upgrade rolling stock is a positive development, even in times of war. First, most of these are external financial resources that come to Ukraine. Ukrainian enterprises win most of the tenders, that allows them to support the economy, maintain the efficiency of machine-building enterprises, retain staff, and pay taxes and fees. Secondly, rolling stock in many cities is in a deplorable state and does not meet accessibility requirements - it does not have a low floor, which is extremely important. Thirdly, modern rolling stock has higher energy efficiency than the outdated and out-of-service trams and trolleybuses it will replace. This will mean savings for local budgets and reduced energy consumption from a single energy grid, and of course, a positive impact on air quality and public health - especially when the new vehicles replace old diesel buses. All these issues have become even more important in times of war." comments Viktor Zagreba, chairman of the board of the NGO Vision Zero.

According to Vision Zero, Ukraine is already one of the countries in Europe with the largest number of electric public transport systems. As of 2021, 41 trolleybus systems and 18 tram systems were operating in Ukrainian cities. 

The list of electric public transport purchases by Ukrainian cities can be found below. Please note that this list may not be exhaustive and some procurements were not included in our monitoring.

Tenders of Ukrainian cities for the purchase of electric public transport in May-August 2023: