BMC Truck&Bus will start production of electric buses near Bucharest from 2024. Romania will become a bus manufacturer and exporter to Europe

BMC Truck&Bus, based in Ciorogârla, near Bucharest, will open a production line for electric buses in the first half of next year, the first of its kind in the country.

“The Ciorogârla facility will initially be capable of producing 200 electric buses a year, but will be expanded to 7-800 units depending on orders,” says Silvia Colacea, BMC’s managing director.

The electric bus factory in Ciorogârla will be the first of its kind in the country, and will also turn Romania into a bus exporter, as BMC wants to deliver abroad.  Domestically, it is already an established name in public transport supply, having delivered thousands of buses and minibuses in 20 years. For electric buses alone, BMC has supplied 500 units internally, out of a total of 1,000 sold in Romania. These were Granton ZTE Smart Auto models, manufactured in China.

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The Made in Romania electric bus will bear the name Eurobus Diamond, BMC’s own brand, under which the Ciorogârla factory sold hundreds of diesel buses until a few years ago.

“We own in Ciorogârla a 35,000 square meters of land, of which the current production unit, in which we have invested 3 million euros, occupies only 10,000 square meters. We still have enough room for a second facility,” says Colacea.

According to her, the start of electric bus production will create 200 jobs in the first phase. With the second facility the number of employees will rise to 7-800. Basically, one man per bus produced per year, the director is quoted as saying.

As for the price, Colacea says that production of the bus in Romania means cost savings (3-8%) compared to importing it from China. So far, the 500 buses that BMC has sold in Romania – Granton ZTE Smart Auto model – have been sold locally at an average price of around 450,000 euros per unit (the price varies depending on the options required by the beneficiary).

The company from Ciorogârla delivered in Bucharest (100 buses and loading stations), Constanta, Iasi, Targu-Mures, Piatra-Neamt, Craiova, Tulcea, Suceava.

In Bucharest, which is the largest contract to date and completed four months ahead of schedule, the buses were 12-metre category, with a minimum range of 200 kilometres between two successive charges (full charging takes 3-4 hours – ed.), fully electric traction, autonomously driven with a Rechargeable Electrical Energy Storage System (RESES), battery packs and fully lowered floor over the entire length of the vehicle, three double doors, air conditioning.

Ciorogârla will not only produce buses, but also smaller electric minibuses, which are increasingly in demand in Romania for transporting students, employees and others. Thus, in terms of chassis length, vehicles of 6 metres, 8.5 metres, 9 metres, 10.8 metres and 12 metres will be produced here.

“We make the chassis here in Romania, the body is also made here, we buy the aluminium sheet from Alro Slatina, the tyres from Pirelli Craiova, the axles are from ZF Germany, the braking systems are from Wabco, the engines come from the UK. From China we take only CATL batteries and software. We’re basically helping other companies in Romania to have work, increasing the local industry as a whole, once we start producing electric buses,” Colacea says.

Starting the construction of electric buses near Bucharest means that Romania will join the select circle of European countries producing electric buses. There are only a few countries in the EU that can boast production and exports of electric buses, such as Germany (Mercedes, MAN), the Czech Republic (SOR), the Netherlands (Ebusco), Poland (Solaris), Sweden(Volvo and SCANIA). Across the EU border, Turkey is another major producer of electric buses. China is by far the world’s largest manufacturer, larger than all other manufacturers put together.

On the Romanian market, where BMC has already delivered 500 buses, the battle is between suppliers of buses with prices up to 500,000 euros. According to BMC’s director, Mercedes, MAN, IVECO are too expensive for the Romanian market, because they offer products with prices starting from 6-700.000 euro, too much compared to what municipalities, county councils in the country or any other customer can offer. Instead, BMC competes internally with Solaris Poland, SOR Czech Republic, TEMSA and Karsan in Turkey.

For export, the Ciorogârla-based manufacturer is targeting regional markets such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, but also other markets such as Italy and Spain.

BMC Truck&Bus is a bus manufacturer and distributor with a production facility in Ciorogârla, near the Bucharest-Pitești motorway, controlled by the Kilic family, whose members are also Romanian citizens.

In 20 years, BMC’s bus and truck sales have amounted to more than 5,000 units.

ZTE, the maker of the Granton bus, is a giant Chinese holding company that brings together dozens of technology firms, with branches in many industries, and an annual turnover of more than $16 billion.