Plans to switch another Belarusian city to electric public transport

Another city in Belarus is expected to switch to electric vehicles in public transportation, BelTA learned from Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Piotr Parkhomchik before a session of the Industry Ministry board.

Piotr Parkhomchik said: “Two pilot projects are being implemented in Shklov and Zhodino. But yet another one is in the pipeline. We are choosing a city with the population of up to 100,000. A certain monetary resource has been set aside for the project. We intend to start implementing it this year. We have assigned two [electric vehicle] manufacturers to different cities in order to find out whose design solutions and models are more frugal in operation. We will perform comparative analysis now and will make the relevant decisions. At present an electrobus costs more than a conventional passenger vehicle. It is important to secure effectiveness, which is hard to see in the short run.”

The official added that they are getting orders for electrobuses from the Russian Federation. “The capacity of the market over there is colossal. Many cities are eager to buy electrobuses from us. And we are even overburdened to some extent,” the deputy prime minister noted.