De Lijn orders hundreds of bus charging poles worth €24.2 million

The Flemish public transport company De Lijn has placed a new order for charging poles for electric buses. This time, it involves 600 to 900 charging poles from SPIE-Ekoenergetyka with a capacity of 50 to 180 kW, representing an investment of 24.2 million euros.

The order is important in preparing De Lijn’s 50 depots to commission e-buses in the coming years. It is part of a November 2023 framework agreement that allows for the purchase of up to 1,600 charging stations over 8 years.

Belgian-Polish company SPIE-Ekoenergetyka

De Lijn previously ordered 403 poles from SPIE-Ekoenergetyka and ABB. The framework agreement provided for additional partial orders following a mini-competition between the Belgian-Polish company SPIE-Ekoenergetyka and the Swedish-Swiss ABB. The former won the new contract.

De Lijn aims to offer completely emission-free public transport by 2035. This is why the company has been purchasing exclusively e-buses for several years, a catch-up move after years of no movement on the issue. De Lijn must also have sufficient electricity and charging points available at its 50 depot locations to charge these buses.

Objectives not always achieved

Since 2021, De Lijn has only purchased emission-free buses. To keep the fleet up to date, one in 15 buses must be replaced each year, roughly equivalent to 145 buses.

However, De Lijn is not meeting that goal. Only 29 buses were replaced in 2024, and replacements in 2023 (90), 2022 (63), and 2021 (97) were also heavily below the objective. The new Flemish government decided to invest 400 million euros in renewing the bus fleet.