A trial version of an electric midibus developed by a Hungarian company recently started its test run in Budapest. On the occasion of this event the minister of national economy, Mihály Varga held a press conference in the Buda Castle. According to his speech the aim is to position Hungary as a leader in the Central-European region in electromobility and in the implementation of electric buses.

The company which developed and produced the electric buses is called Evopro. Csaba Mészáros, the CEO of Evopro affirmed that this prototype of the Modulo bus family which is now on trial in Budapest is a 57% Hungarian product.

The Centre for Budapest Transport (BKK) signed a contract not so long ago for buying 16 Karsan ATAK diesel-powered midibuses. These buses meant to replace a part of the old, outdated and highly polluting Ikarus buses.

The Clean Air Action Group (CAAG) compared the most important attributions of the Karsan ATAK and the new Evopro electric bus:

From an environmental aspect, besides air-pollution the energy consumption is an important factor as well. The Karsan ATAK consumes in urban circumstances approximately 35 liters of fuel per 100 kilometer which is equivalent to 3.85 kWh per kilometer while the Evopro electric bus consumes less than a quarter of that, only 0.91 kWh. Even if we take into account the 40% efficiency of the electrical energy production in coal or gas power plants, the Evopro bus consumes 2.3 kWh per kilometer which is still only 60% of that of the diesel-powered bus, and the CO₂ emission is also proportionately less.

Compared to the electric bus the diesel-powered one needs a lot more maintenance and to continuously meet the EURO VI requirements its exhaust system needs to be filled up with expensive additive on a regular basis. If all costs are projected to the whole life-cycle, the Evopro buses are more economical even if purchasing them costs one and a half to two times more than the Karsan buses.

Hopefully the test run of the Evopro buses will be successful and we can meet more and more exhaustgas-free, energy-saving buses on the streets of Budapest, and at the same timeensuring the creation of new job opportunities for Hungarians.