What Bucharest is buying
Operator Societatea de Transport București will receive 20 twelve-metre battery-electric buses and 20 ten-metre buses. They replace Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses with Euro 3 diesel engines. Forty-five trolleybuses go to the same fleet, replacing older Astra-Ikarus vehicles, and ten trams will replace V3A(M) cars.
Mayor Ciprian Ciucu announced the funding on Facebook. The European Investment Bank has confirmed the project as a priority investment for the city. Ciucu named charging infrastructure as the next essential step, and said it should be designed so the vehicles can be deployed as soon as they are procured.
The maths per vehicle
Split €87.44 million evenly across all 95 vehicles and you get just over €920,000 each. That average says almost nothing, because a new tram costs several times what a bus does.
Using recent European tender results as a yardstick (a 10–12 metre battery bus at €400,000–550,000, a battery-trolleybus at €500,000–700,000, a new tram at €2.5–3.5 million), mid-range prices put the vehicle package at roughly €75 million. That leaves an estimated €12 million for charging equipment and project costs. Take the top of every range and the package would breach the €87.44 million grant, which points to competitive tendering or a cheaper tram mix than the ranges suggest. Bucharest has not published unit prices, so these are market benchmarks, not contract values.
Diesel versus electric per 100 km
A Euro 3 Citaro in city service burns around 45 litres per 100 km. Romanian diesel has been close to €1.45 per litre, so fuel for 100 km costs about €65.
A 12-metre battery bus uses roughly 100 kWh per 100 km in urban duty. Depot electricity at €0.12–0.20 per kWh puts that at €12–20 per 100 km. The gap is €45–50 per 100 km, or €27,000–30,000 per bus over a 60,000 km year. Across 40 buses that is €1.1–1.2 million a year.
Two caveats. Electric heating in a Bucharest winter can push bus consumption toward 130–140 kWh per 100 km. Depot demand charges and network tariffs can add to the kWh price, so on a cold day the lower end of the savings range is the more realistic one. Our charging cost calculator applies the same kWh × price logic to a passenger car.
Charging is the next line item
The 22 Yutong U12 battery-trolleybuses delivered in early 2026 can run up to 20 km on their batteries with no overhead line. That design lets STB serve streets where the wire network does not reach, and the 45 new trolleybuses will need the same partial-wire operation.
For the 40 battery buses, everything depends on depots. Charging layout sets how many vehicles a site can hold overnight and how much grid capacity has to be bought. Bidirectional depot charging remains at pilot stage: the EU-funded EV4EU project closed with a CCS prototype and four pilot results, which is not enough for a fleet planner to count on selling power back to the grid when sizing a depot today.
Where the €87.44 million comes from
The Modernisation Fund is filled from EU emissions trading revenue and pays out to lower-income member states, with Romania among the largest recipients. The grant is non-repayable, and the city's contribution is VAT. Romania's standard rate is 21%, so if it applies to the full €87.44 million the city books about €18.4 million. The actual VAT base depends on how the contracts are split.
This is fleet funding rather than regulation. The EU's 2035 car CO2 target is a separate discussion, where France and Germany have pushed for a weaker 80% cut, as we reported on the proposal due on 15 October.
What is already on the street
Bucharest has been buying electric buses and trolleybuses for several years. One hundred Solaris Trollino 12 trolleybuses have been delivered, 100 battery-electric buses were ordered from Karsan and 100 charging stations announced. The 22 Yutong battery-trolleybuses arrived at the start of 2026. The 40 new buses take out part of the Euro 3 diesel tier, the oldest group still running in the city.
Bucharest has not published unit prices, delivery dates or how much of the €87.44 million will go to charging equipment. The mayor has said the charging network is the next step. The tender documents will carry the numbers.