Ministry of Environment launches program for electric school minibusses

Alina Oprea

25 August, 2023 at 10:20 AM

The Minister of the Environment, Waters, and Forests, Mircea Fechet, announced the launch of the program for the purchase of electric, hybrid, and compressed natural gas-powered minibusses. The minibusses will be used for the school transport of students. The program has a budget of RON 300 million (€60 million) and is financed by the Environment Fund Administration. County councils and administrative-territorial subdivisions of the municipality of Bucharest can apply to this program.

Minibusses purchased must be new.

"We are launching today, for the first time, the Electric Minibuses Program for the transport of students. It is one of the programs funded by the ministry through which we try to mitigate the impact of climate change, ensure cleaner air, participate in the decarbonization of the transport sector, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With this program, we also fit into the European trend for sustainable mobility. This program complements the Rabla Classic program, the Rabla Plus program, and, more recently, Rabla Local. Basically, it will transport students to school and back to their homes, aiming to change our communities into greener communities. We will not only finance electric minibusses, but we will also finance the related infrastructure, I mean the charging infrastructure. Practically, for each minibus purchased we will be able to finance an electric charging station", said Minister Mircea Fechet.

This program finances the purchase of electric, hybrid, and CNG-powered minibusses, the purchase of minibus recharging stations, and consulting expenses for the implementation of the project, within the limit of 1% of the total amount related to the purchase of the requested minibusses and stations, VAT related to the project, in the conditions in which it was requested and is not recoverable, refundable or compensated by any other means according to the legal provisions. Purchase of charging stations is allowed up to one charging station/minibus purchased.

"The program will actually start on September 8. Until then, the county councils, together with the local public authorities, should prepare the financing documentation. It will be open for two months, between September 8 and November 8", added the Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests.

Funding is granted depending on the category of the administrative-territorial unit to which the applicant belongs, as follows:

- For administrative-territorial units with a number of students within the UAT radius of less than 40,000, a maximum of RON 7 million (€1.4 million) is granted;

- For administrative-territorial units with a number of students within the radius of the UAT between 40,001 and 60,000, a maximum of RON 15 million (€3 million) is granted;

- For administrative-territorial units with a number of students within the radius of the UAT greater than 60,000, a maximum of RON 25 million (€5 million) is granted.

The project is eligible that include less polluting vehicles, such as electric, hybrid minibusses and those powered by compressed natural gas, which meet the following criteria: they belong to the category M2 - M3 – respectively electric minibusses, hybrid minibusses, CNG-powered minibusses; electric minibusses have a minimum range of 200 km, and plug-in hybrid minibusses have a minimum range of 50 km exclusively on electric power; have CE type approval (for example minibusses that have a CE type approval of the entire vehicle issued by any member state of the European Union no longer require approval in Romania) and the Vehicle Identity Card (CIV) issued by the Romanian Auto Registry, in accordance with the specific administrative procedures, meet the requirements related to accessibility for people with reduced mobility.