“We don't know of any other city that has the prospect of having fully electric public transport and, in principle, we will be the first Portuguese city”, welcomed the mayor of Évora, Carlos Pinto de Sá.

According to the mayor, this new company won the international public tender launched by the municipality for the management concession of the public passenger transport service in Évora.

The mayor said that the council wants “the tariffs to be attractive”, so “there must necessarily be a contribution from the municipality” and the State through the Support Program for Tariff Reduction in Transport (PART).

“We are available to support this value to encourage the use of public transport and, on the other hand, so that people can also, in some way, exchange their private car for public transport”, he underlined.

In the contract specifications for the tender, said the mayor, it initially stated that the fleet would have to have only “a percentage of electric buses”, since these vehicles “are much more expensive than diesel ones”.

“But in the meantime, the possibility arose for the concessionaire to acquire buses with the support of national programs for decarbonisation”, so this solution allows “to guarantee that the entire fleet is electric”, he stressed.