Ikarus wins North Macedonian electric bus tender with Zhongtong model

The largest electric bus procurement in Ikarus’s history has been successfully concluded: according to the now final and legally binding outcome of the procedure, the long-established company will be able to supply 150 electric rigid city buses, together with the 75 electric chargers required for their operation, to the capital and regional cities of North Macedonia. At the same time, a major change compared with the practice of recent years is that Ikarus entered the tender not in cooperation with CRRC, but with a model from another Chinese bus manufacturer, Zhongtong, which is expanding ever more intensively in Europe as well. This could even point to a fundamental shift in the Székesfehérvár-based company’s market strategy and partner relationships.

According to press material sent by Ikarus to our portal, Ikarus Electric Zrt., with a joint bid submitted together with Zhongtong Bus Holding Co., Ltd. and, as energy partner, EVN Macedonia Elektrosnabduvanje DOOEL, has officially and now finally won the public procurement procedure for the purchase of electric buses and charging stations reissued by North Macedonia’s Ministry of Transport following the earlier cancellation. As is known, the ministry first announced the tender this spring, which was also won by the Ikarus consortium at the time, but that victory was annulled a few weeks later on formal grounds. In the repeated procedure, Ikarus again appeared to be in the lead – among the bids received, the offers submitted by Türkiye’s BMC Otomotiv and Ikarus Electric Zrt. met the tender requirements and therefore qualified for the electronic auction, where the consortium led by Ikarus Electric Zrt. ultimately submitted the most favourable bid – and this time, after the expiry of the appeal period, the contract has also become final.

Under the project, financed from North Macedonian state funds, the consortium will supply 150 fully electric, fully low-floor city buses and 75 electric plug-in chargers to serve them for Skopje and the smaller North Macedonian cities participating in the programme. Delivery of the vehicles will take place in three phases following the signing of the contract: 30 buses and 15 charging units in the first six months, a further 60 buses and 30 chargers within twelve months, and the remaining 60 buses and 30 chargers within eighteen months.

In its press release, Ikarus describes the result as the first major milestone in the company’s expansion in the Balkans, one that strengthens the brand’s presence in the European electromobility market and, it hopes, creates a solid foundation for further local and regional market growth. As the company writes, the investment, built on strong international partnerships, has as a “key strategic objective the creation of a high level of local added value; therefore, the vast majority of services related to the full life cycle of the vehicles will be implemented with the involvement of local partners and suppliers, thereby strengthening the efficiency and sustainability of the supply chain, as well as long-term, mutually beneficial cooperation” – in other words, this essentially means the provision of after-sales services by local partners.

The image supplied by Ikarus with the press material, showing a Zhongtong N12

The parties have not yet commented on the vehicles themselves or their specifications – however, the image attached to the press release shows a Zhongtong N12 electric bus, so the consortium almost certainly secured the order, outstanding in volume even by European standards, with this model. This also appears to be supported by the fact that Zhongtong is otherwise open to similar forms of cooperation: in some Northern European countries, for example, the distribution tasks are handled by Lithuania’s Altas Auto, which also manufactures minibuses of its own design, in such a way that the Chinese manufacturer’s smaller electric models are marketed under Altas Auto’s own name, while the full-size buses are sold with Zhongtong’s original logo. In the case of Ikarus, there is as yet no substantive information on further details of the cooperation, including any possible partial local production or the brand name under which the buses destined for North Macedonia will be delivered – naturally, we will inform our readers as soon as we have more information.

The cover image is an illustration.