Just completed in China, According to the latest information, the construction of the standard bus 18 metres of Yutong, to be released in Thessaloniki.
The contract to supply 50 articulated electric buses along with their accessories, which come to be added to the OASH fleet, was signed on Thursday, April 2, 2026 with Yutong contractor.
The first pictures of the buses published by mononews.gr, show the interior of vehicles, designed in the light of sustainable travel, given the company's wider policy.
According to sources that know the subject, new buses are expected to arrive in Greece around mid-July 2026 and once the necessary actions are completed from the point of view of OASTH and OSETH will be put into circulation on the streets of Thessaloniki, improving the transport work and thus the passenger experience.
The supply of 50 new articulated urban vehicles 18 meters, a budget of 46.5 million euros (including VAT) is funded by the Recovery and Durability Fund. It is noted that Thessaloniki is the first city in which articulated buses have been released since 1979.
The thriller behind the assumption
The Chinese electric giant became a contractor in the open competition of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport last autumn. However, Yutong herself, who had submitted a preliminary ruling to EADY as it considered that both rejected tenders (p. Zhongtong and BYD Auto Industry Co. Ltd) had to be rejected for other reasons. On the other hand, Zhongtong also brought an action for a preliminary ruling against its rejection. The Chinese companies' appeals were examined by EADY on 7 November 2025.
As mentioned in previous reports, EADY notified on 20 November its decision on preliminary rulings. «justifying» Yutong, accepting not only the reasons for the rejection of the bids of the two other companies by the HR, but also the application of Yutong which invoked further three reasons for rejecting Zhongtong's offer. In essence, EADY in its decision accepted that Zhongtong's offer had to be rejected for a total of five reasons.
After the end of 10 days, Zhongtong, although she had a margin until the end of the first week of December to challenge this decision «catapult» EADISY to the Council of State, eventually did not proceed to any move, which locks the result of the competition in favour of Yutong.
New investments in electric motor in MMM
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport promotes new billions of euros investments with the background of electricity in the Public Transport, with government policy looking forward to the full renewal of the OSH and OASTH fleet.
Already, in the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki new electric buses, anti-pollution technology, which marks a new page in the history of public transport. In particular, there are around 1076 electric buses on the streets of Athens, while in Thessaloniki there are over 300 new electric buses.
As far as government planning is concerned, it predicts by 2027 that around 1600 new vehicles will be on the streets of Athens. In fact, at regular intervals new procurement competitions for electric buses and their accessories or hydrogen buses are announced.
As you know, there is also a new tender for the supply of electric buses, but also in Motion Charging (IMC). IMC vehicles are expected to replace trolleybuses, which will be phased out. Already, the network's dismantling operations have moved on to Piraeus with the contribution of the municipality, while after the work of the single line electrification by STAY, the tram from 18 February has been the terminal of «Posidon Coast».
Finally, recently, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, in collaboration with the Advisory Services of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the OSY S.A., proceeded to design modern charging infrastructure for electric buses, using renewable energy sources.
This cooperation shall be related to the provision of advisory services by the EIB, through the Invest EU programme, to prepare and mature a coherent investment programme involving energy solutions, charging infrastructure and energy storage systems for the carriage spaces.
Source: mononews.gr
