Comparison of Tender Criteria for Electric and Diesel Buses in Poland—Has the Ongoing Revolution in Urban Transport Been Overlooked?

Aleksander Jagiełło (), Marcin Wołek and Wojciech Bizon
Additional contact information
Aleksander Jagiełło: Faculty of Economics, University of Gdansk, 80-309 Gdańsk, Poland
Marcin Wołek: Faculty of Economics, University of Gdansk, 80-309 Gdańsk, Poland
Wojciech Bizon: Faculty of Economics, University of Gdansk, 80-309 Gdańsk, Poland

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: The electrification of public transport is an overwhelming trend, representing the first step in the energy transition of the transport sector. The transport sector is characterized by the prevalence of public ownership and the significant influence of the public sector. Accordingly, tendering procedures are widely utilized to identify the most efficient bus delivery options. This paper compares, evaluates, and identifies the differences in criteria used in tenders for battery electric buses and diesel buses in Poland based on a deep bus market analysis supported by in-depth individual interviews. The article also attempts to determine whether the weight of the “vehicle price” criterion corresponds to the share of the vehicle price in its life cycle cost or total cost of ownership. The results indicate no significant difference in the tender criteria between battery electric buses and diesel buses. In the vast majority of cases, institutions that had previously developed diesel bus acquisition patterns transferred these patterns to tenders for battery electric bus purchases. Therefore, the criteria and their weights used in tenders do not consider the advantages and disadvantages of both technologies. Tendering procedures are adapted to local conditions and operational requirements. Electric buses often replace conventionally powered vehicles on existing routes and schedules. Thus, operational requirements are known. As a result, the necessary number of vehicles and the basic technical and operational parameters (e.g., selection of the optimal charging method and battery capacity) can be determined. In turn, the charging method will influence the total cost of ownership, with overnight charging favored for shorter assignments and opportunity charging favored for longer mileages.

Keywords: public transport; electromobility; tendering process; tender criteria; city buses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/11/4280/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/11/4280/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:11:p:4280-:d:1153851

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().