Contract to supply LTA with 660 electric buses draws 21 bids

SINGAPORE – A tender by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to

buy 660 electric buses

has drawn 21 bids, the highest number of bidders yet as the agency aims to have half of the public bus fleet run on batteries by 2030.

Among the hopefuls are familiar names like Alexander Dennis from Britain, Volvo from Sweden, and BYD and Yutong from China, all of which already have buses plying public routes in Singapore.

Also in the mix are international brands such as Northern Irish manufacturer Wrightbus and Finnish electric bus maker Jeti Industries, as well as a number of local suppliers and distributors, including Cycle & Carriage Automotive, ST Engineering, Eurokars and Alpine Motors.

The LTA tender, which was called in March and closed on June 26, is for 360 three-door single-deck buses and 300 three-door double-deckers that will be delivered progressively by the end of 2027.

This will bring the total number of electric public buses here to 1,140.

To achieve its 2030 goal, the authority committed in 2024 to buy more than 2,000 electric buses over the next five years.

As at March 31, there were 5,871 public buses registered in Singapore, mainly running on diesel or hybrid engines.

LTA brought in Singapore’s first 60 electric public buses in 2018 for about $50 million to evaluate the technology.

These vehicles were supplied by Yutong, BYD and ST Engineering, which tied up with Finnish bus maker Linkker.

A bigger push to adopt the technology came in 2023, when

LTA bought 360 new electric single-deck buses

for $166.4 million in a tender that was contested by 18 bidders.

Contracts were eventually awarded to BYD and Cycle & Carriage, which partnered with another Chinese manufacturer, Zhongtong.

LTA later exercised an option to buy another 60 more electric buses from BYD, taking the total purchase to 420 buses.

These new electric buses are being progressively deployed for service, replacing older diesel buses reaching the end of their 17-year lifespans.

All 420 vehicles are expected to be on the road by the end of 2025.

The move to overhaul the public bus fleet is part of a broader goal by the Government to cut land transport emissions by 80 per cent, from a peak of 7.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2016 to 1.54 million tonnes around 2050.

This is in line with Singapore’s aim of net-zero emissions by the middle of the century.