A southern Italian municipality has issued a public tender for the supply of 42 fully electric, articulated buses, aiming to deploy the fleet by the summer of 2026 as part of its upcoming bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors. The procurement is backed by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), and the contract deadline, including delivery and operational readiness, is set for June 30, 2026.
The tender is structured as a single lot and requires bidders to meet stringent financial and operational criteria. Prospective suppliers must demonstrate a minimum turnover of €44.7 million (excluding VAT) in their three best-performing years out of the last five, and must also have a proven history of delivering at least 80 fully electric Class I M3 buses within the past decade.
The specifications call for low-floor, articulated electric buses designed for intensive urban use of up to 20 hours daily. Each vehicle must accommodate at least 110 passengers, including 35 seated, and must feature four doors, two wheelchair spaces, and an integrated boarding ramp. Authorities have emphasized performance and accessibility as key elements of the tender.
Technical requirements include a minimum battery capacity of 430 kWh and a range of at least 145 kilometers per charge. The buses must support average operational speeds of 18.5 km/h and be capable of managing gradients up to 5%. To ensure flexibility, each bus must also support overnight and opportunity charging, with at least two 100 kW plug-in connectors per vehicle.
The tender comes on the heels of Bari’s wider push to electrify its public transit network. In October 2023, local authorities announced a plan to procure 135 electric buses by 2026. As part of that plan, Bari’s municipal bus operator AMTAB added 23 Iveco E-Way units to its fleet in May 2025. However, those vehicles are not designated for the BRT network currently under development.