Brussels Airport has ordered 30 full electrically powered buses from Chinese battery and bus manufacturer BYD, financial newspaper De Tijd discovered. A huge blow for Belgian bus builders Van Hool and VDL.
The two Belgian bus manufacturers Van Hool (Koningshooikt) and VDL (Roeselare) expected to clinch the deal with Brussels Airport as both companies amassed experience on e-buses. But it was the Chinese player that was awarded the tender for 30 e-buses, thanks to a very low price: BYD offered €330,000 per bus, 33 percent cheaper than the second cheapest bidder VDL.
VDL lodged a complaint in court and the latter ruled that Brussels Airport didn’t sufficiently display the results of the price inquiry. But Brussels Airport published a better motivation for their decision to buy the Chinese buses and again awarded the order to BYD.
The deal – worth around €10,000,000- is likely to be signed in the coming weeks, the e-buses will be deployed from early 2018 to transport passengers from the terminal to aircraft which are parked at a remote position (and vv).
Brussels Airport always stated that it has followed the European rules on public procurement.
Source: De Tijd
