During the Europe Industry Week conference, the panel „Buses: Electric bus on the streets of my city” took place. The panel was led by Agata Rzędowska, editor of BiznesAlert.pl. Representatives of companies emphasized that already now about 70 percent of low-emission vehicles being produced are of Polish production. This is due to cooperation with Polish contractors. The challenge may be access to electric batteries.
Poland in the forefront of changes
Tomasz Pyzałka from Solaris said that the forefront of changes and the purchase of electric buses are Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland. – Cities in the Netherlands have already stated that from 2020 they will only buy electric vehicles, and the fleet of vehicles in the British Isles is growing. In 2017, about 350 e-buses were registered, but now companies have about 1000 orders for new vehicles – he said. He added, however, that the problem may be access to electric batteries, production of which is dominated by Asia. – Here we face the challenge of „bottlenecks” for batteries – he said.
There will be more purchase orders
– The production process for an electric vehicle is similar to a regular vehicle – said Małgorzata Duda from Volvo. – Currently, approximately 70 percent all components in the production of low-emission and electric vehicles come from Poland. We hope that the demand for low-emission vehicles will increase, not only based on electricity, but also with hydrogen or methane. This will mean that purchase orders will increase, the number of jobs and orders for Polish contractors will increase – she said. She added that there is a growing demand for professionals, electricians, which shows the trend and challenges in terms of staffing.
Tomasz Pyzałka agreed with this thesis, he stated that cooperation with schools and technicians is required in order to educate specialists from the point of view of market needs.
Warsaw will focus on electromobility in the next decade
Wiesław Witek from the City Transport Authority in Warsaw announced that 60 new chargers for electric buses will be built at ZTM. – The new contract for the supply of vehicles in 2024, for 400 vehicles, will already fully apply only to electric vehicles – he said. He added, however, that currently the cost of electric vehicles is still „quite high”.
Tomasz Pyzałka also noticed that e-buses can harmoniously cooperate with carsharing. – Through e-buses, a good signal can be sent to the public that the comfort of life, air quality will improve thanks to shared transport – he said.
Małgorzata Duda added that e-buses are better air quality and lower noise levels, and cities plan to create zero-emission zones. – We need to look at electromobility as a communication system, not only e-buses, but also hybrids. The cities have to decide themselves what drive to choose. – she said. – We are counting on more cooperation and more production in Polish factories – she concluded.