{"id":472,"date":"2026-07-01T15:38:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/2026\/07\/01\/hundreds-of-yutong-electric-buses-enter-service-in-norway\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:38:34","slug":"hundreds-of-yutong-electric-buses-enter-service-in-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/2026\/07\/01\/hundreds-of-yutong-electric-buses-enter-service-in-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Yutong Electric Buses Enter Service in Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer’s schedule change in Norway has brought the launch of new public transport concessions in several regions. Recently, several new bus service contracts have come into effect, among which the most noteworthy is undoubtedly linked to Vestfold County: Tide Buss took over the operation of the region’s bus transportation with 235 new battery-electric buses in a single day. This change is not just a traditional service provider switch but also a full-scale technological transition. From the start of the new concession on July 1, the entire bus service in Vestfold is operated with electric vehicles, marking a significant fleet replacement even by Norwegian standards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Vestfold County transportation authority awarded the ten-year public service contract to Tide Buss in April 2025, which represents the largest bus contract in the company’s history. The concession covers the entire bus network of Vestfold, serving the local and regional bus transportation of municipalities such as Holmestrand, Horten, T\u00f8nsberg, F\u00e6rder, Sandefjord, and Larvik in the region of approximately 250,000 residents on the western shore of the Oslo Fjord. The network’s backbone consists of routes between the county’s largest cities, complemented by extensive local, suburban, and school bus services. The contract involves approximately 11.2 million scheduled kilometers annually, with an estimated value approaching 7 billion Norwegian kroner.<\/p>\n

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The uniqueness of this transition lies in the fact that from the first day of the concession, the service is entirely based on electric buses. To achieve this, Tide not only deployed a new vehicle fleet but also established a completely new operational infrastructure. At Vestfold’s 13 depots and terminals, an infrastructure of about 250 charging points was built, based on Kempower technology. The project preparation took months; besides building the charging network, it included testing the vehicles, training drivers and technical staff, and introducing new operational processes. The launch on July 1 was not just a fleet replacement. Along with the new concession, the entire route network was modified, with many routes receiving new paths or numbers, the timetable was renewed, and a new passenger information and ticketing system was implemented.<\/p>\n

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The new fleet of 235 buses in Vestfold is predominantly composed of Yutong-manufactured vehicles, making the fleet deployed in the region almost entirely based on Chinese-made vehicles. Among the fleet, 41 buses were supplied by Scania<\/a>, but these were built with the Fencer F1 body by the Chinese Higer on the Swedish manufacturer’s electric chassis. The remaining vehicles were provided by Yutong, in various configurations to cover local, suburban, and regional transportation needs.<\/p>\n

The fleet includes the two- and three-axle, low-entry U12 and U15 models, as well as the larger seating capacity IC12E and three-axle IC15E variants designed for intercity and regional transport.<\/p>\n

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The fleet choice is noteworthy because, in recent years, several public procurements in Norway have sparked lively debate over the expansion of Chinese bus manufacturers. Despite this, their presence continues to strengthen in the newly launched concessions. Besides the 235 vehicles deployed in Vestfold, Tide Buss recently put 38 Yutong buses into service in the Sunnhordland region and 24 in Sogn, while Firda Buss received 97 Yutong buses for its new concession in Sunnfjord.<\/p>\n

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This illustrates well how Chinese manufacturers \u2013 despite political and procurement debates in recent years \u2013 continue to strengthen their position in the Norwegian public transport market. One reason for this is that in the concession-based public transport system, operators must meet increasingly strict sustainability and decarbonization goals, often with very tight deadlines. In such an environment, vehicle availability, production capacity, predictable delivery schedules, and reliable after-sales support, parts supply, and service background often carry as much weight as the purchase price itself.<\/p>\n

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The Vestfold concession exemplifies this well. The contract was awarded in April 2025, and the operator had just over a year to deliver and put into service a fully electric fleet of 235 vehicles. Currently, only a few bus manufacturers have the production capacity to support a project of this volume with tight deadlines. Most European manufacturers often face multi-year delivery timelines due to significant order backlogs, while Yutong can offer shorter deadlines thanks to its industrial-scale production capacity. This is complemented by competitive value for money and a strengthened European parts and service network in recent years, providing a significant competitive advantage in large-scale concession vehicle procurements.<\/p>\n\n

As a result, the number of Yutong buses operating in Norway now exceeds 1,200. The manufacturer has not only become a key player in the Norwegian electric bus market but also exemplifies the broader European trend where Asian \u2013 primarily Chinese \u2013 manufacturers are playing an increasingly significant role in large-scale, tightly scheduled electrification projects.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer’s schedule change in Norway has brought the launch of new public transport concessions in several regions. Recently, several new bus service contracts have come into effect, among which the most noteworthy is undoubtedly linked to Vestfold County: Tide Buss took over the operation of the region’s bus transportation with 235 new battery-electric buses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[103,369,370,136],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-outlook","tag-battery-powered","tag-concession","tag-norway","tag-yutong"],"acf":{"mbi_related_box_multiple":null,"mbi_gallery_enabled":false,"mbi_gallery_manual_order":"Kompakt","mbi_gallery_source":"Ehhez a cikkhez felt\u00f6lt\u00f6tt k\u00e9pek","mbi_gallery_images":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}