Coimbra buys two electric minibuses for urban transport
The Municipal Urban Transport Services of Coimbra (SMTUC) will have two new electric minibuses, announced today the City Hall.
At the fortnightly meeting of the executive, chaired by the socialist Manuel Machado, the awarding of the vehicles and battery chargers was unanimously approved by the UIC, which won the tender for a total value of 634,680 euros, including VAT of 23%.
With a capacity of 19 seats, the two minibuses are six meters long, an engine with 125 KW of power and batteries with a capacity of 66 kWh (kilowatt-hour).
In the proposal discussed and voted on, the municipality highlights its “commitment to renew the SMTUC fleet with more efficient vehicles and use energy sources with better environmental performance.”
“Until the delivery of the final report of the operation, the SMUTC will commit to taking down an end-of-life bus for each electric bus received,” he adds.
This procedure, according to the document distributed to journalists, results from a candidature of the Coimbra Chamber for the Operational Program Sustainability and Efficiency in the Use of Resources (POSEUR), approved in January 2017, to “promote energy efficiency in the collective transportation of passengers entrusted of public service missions “.
The contract was signed by Manuel Machado at a ceremony held in Lisbon on July 21 last year in the presence of Prime Minister António Costa and Environment Minister João Matos Fernandes.
At that time, the procedure for the purchase of eight electric buses, which has already been approved by the Court of Auditors, has been initiated and will be delivered to SMTUC by April 2019.
The only proposal initially submitted for the supply of the two six-meter electric minibuses had been ruled out by the executive.
Following the opening of a new international public tender, the tender for the UIC was approved today.
Over the last five years, the municipality “has been betting on the renewal of the SMTUC fleet, which has resulted in the reinforcement of more than 40 buses, two hybrids and 10 electric cars, for an investment of around nine million euros, in addition to fully supporting the social cost of transport, “exceeding nine million euros per year.
Also unanimously, the City Council decided to advance with another application to POSEUR to reinforce the SMTUC fleet with 14 new electric buses.
The planned investment will be around six million euros, including the purchase of loading systems and technical assistance for these public transport vehicles in Coimbra.
