6. What insights has working within TWG4 delivered?

A summary of the insights each region has come to, in working on the project of eBussed, and especially in working within TWG4.

Turku

The work done in TWG4 has shown that public transport is organized in very different ways in a different countries and regions, which sets each region in different position when major changes, like e-buses, are introduced into the system. Analysis of the value chains and relevant actors in each of the six eBussed regions made it possible to understand these differences and make meaningful comparisons. Transition to electric public transport changes significantly the cost structure in bus operation shifting the weight from Operating Expenses (OPEX) to Capital Expenditures (CAPEX). This new cost structure brings uncertainties into profitability calculations. In each region, the value chain defines what kind of role each actor has in the change and risk-bearing. It also sets the framework in which the public transport authority can manage the change. To achieve a smooth and rapid shift to electric public transport, used tools and practices have to be selected based on the regional value chain and its actors.

Hamburg

In Hamburg, four Stakeholder meetings were held in semester 4. During these meetings, Stakeholders were involved by cooperatively working on ‘jam boards’ to share and discuss challenges, good practices and lessons learned. The main aspects regarding financial topics were tender procedures and funding. It was mentioned that the European-wide tenders are very bureaucratic and complex. It is especially complex regarding the topic of e-mobility because there is still a lack of insight and experience of the requirements and therefore of the design and content of the tender documents.

Further meetings are envisaged in the form of interviews with selected stakeholders, to enable going further into detail.

Gozo

The first thing learned from the eBussed project about procurement was that procurement processes are different in all the participating countries of this project. There are of course some baseline similarities but the more we discussed the Procurement Process, Tendering and Financial matters during our regular TWG4 meetings, the more was learned about the different approaches that each country takes towards procurement of electric buses. This

was beneficial to the scope of the project which is all about the exchange of experiences between the partners. In Malta’s case, being a country that is only in its initial phases of procurement of electric public transport, the experiences from partners who already have an active electric bus fleet were of great interest to the stakeholders. The stakeholder group for Malta/Gozo included representatives of the national transport Authority, national public transport operator, public ferry operator, regional business association and regional Ministry.

When discussing with stakeholders about local procurement plans for electric public transport the first thing which is mentioned is the challenges that such a transition requires. Some of the challenges are obvious like the need for funding, change in infrastructure etc. However, other challenges come from the fact that Malta and Gozo are small islands with very hilly topography, very hot summer and traffic congestions in certain areas. Said that none of the stakeholders was resistant to the transition towards electric public transport. The National Transport Authority has issued a “National Transport Strategy 2050” which sets goals related to urban transportation with a target 50% shift away from conventionally fueled cars by 2030 and a complete phase-out in cities by 2050. Considering these targets, the National Public Transport operator has shown an interest to invest in the electrification of its bus fleet and the first step towards this transition was the TAM electric bus pilot project.

Livorno

Livorno Province is undertaking the formulation of an Urban Sustainable Mobility Plan which will assign great emphasis to the introduction of electric-driven public transport at the territorial level. The guiding principle may be that of a direct public procurement with an e-bus fleet assigned to the local transport operators in use. Public procurement rules and experiences in other partner regions will thus become of high relevance, also concerning the Action Plan formulation during the latter part of Phase 1 of the eBussed project. The forthcoming procurement policies being adopted by the regional authorities in Tuscany in relation to entering into the activity of the new single regional operator will also influence the future pattern/s of the procurement process.

Utrecht

The e-bussed project has shown that there are many different ways public transport is organized in the different regions, which has led to very different choices in the procurement of e-buses. In some regions the public transport authority procures (and thus finances) the buses themselves, while in the Netherlands the operator is usually responsible for that. The TWG4 has provided us insights in other possible arrangements – which is especially

relevant now that due to the corona crisis operators have fewer financial possibilities to invest in e-buses, while at the same time the need for investment is increasing if we want to be fully zero emission by 2028. Other possible arrangements include procuring the buses by the authority instead of the operator (although this is not common in the Netherlands), or leaving the procurement of the buses with the operator, but taking a role in the financing of the buses (for example: bus loans) The insights for TWG4 are input for our tendering process of the new concessions starting in December 2025, in which we will evaluate which way of procuring and tendering e-buses is the best way to go forward with in the new concessions.

For TWG4, we have spoken with several stakeholders, especially the operators in our province, but also other parties like the Transport Region of Amsterdam, which is one of the leading parties regarding e-buses in the Netherlands. The conversations with them regarding bus loans were also valuable insights for the tendering process in Utrecht.

Pécs / Paks

In South Transdanubia, they have learned a lot from the different eBussed regions in terms of the different roles in the value chain of e-bus public transport (energy production-electric infrastructure-charging infrastructure-electric buses-transport service) and flow chart of public procurement (preparation and planning-publication and transparency-submission of tenders and selection of tenderers-contract implementation and management).

Based on the different eBussed models acquainted, they concluded that the Hungarian case reflects well the unitary and centralized operation of Hungary and the local municipalities that are in charge of the provision of the local public bus transport. The features of this system are the public nature of asset ownership and operation of the public transport, and the extended use of public procurement processes being required by the operation rules of the Hungarian state and the law on local municipalities. Private actors are present in this system when they are addressing issues of energy production and transmission, also when providing e-bus fleets as bidders for the municipalities and the maintenance services within and beyond the guarantee period of the purchased vehicles.