Chernihiv Automotive Plant, which is part of Etalon Corporation, according to the results of the disclosure of tender proposals held on June 28 in the auction for the supply of low-floor buses to Mykolaiv for EUR 4.5 million for the funds of the European Investment Bank (EIB), hopes to win, taking into account the best price offer.

"Proposals were submitted by the plant and two Turkish companies. At the same time, the plant offers 55 buses for the specified amount, and Turkish companies - 28 and 26, respectively. That is, our cost is almost half. In addition, the figures for fuel consumption and maintenance costs are 10 years - also half as much," said Oleksandr Chernetsky, the director for quality at the plant, at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Thursday.

At the same time, he recalled that similar situations had already repeatedly arisen, when the application of the plant was not considered, and in preparation for the auction, the customer said that the technical conditions of not a single domestic participant complied with them, and requests to make changes to the specification were refused.

"We have been talking about this for a long time - first about Belarusian buses, now about Turkish ones (for example, purchases in Kryvy Rih), and about the fact that budget funds should be spent wisely, especially in war conditions, and about patriotism, about jobs, but the situation when the customer chooses the bus he likes and formally holds a tender, prescribing conditions for it, does not change," said Natalia Bachurna, the sales director of the plant.

Participants in the press conference again expressed bewilderment that Ukrainian cities still do not use the opportunity of a 15% preference for domestic automakers when announcing tenders for the purchase of vehicles at the expense of the EBRD and the EIB, and also do not take into account that Ukrainian vehicles are much cheaper.

According to the figures given by Deputy Director of Etalon Auto Trading House Oleksandr Chernetsky, since the second half of 2022, when the purchases of public transport by Ukrainian cities at the expense of the EIB and the EBRD have revived, the budget for purchases of buses and trolleybuses is about EUR90 million (about 200 trolleybuses and 100 buses).

"This is a big program, and it would be possible to load three Ukrainian factories for its implementation, and receive taxes from EUR90 million, and not conditionally from EUR9 million, which will be received by an intermediary when a Ukrainian customer purchases non-Ukrainian products," Vadym Shkarupin, the director of the trading house, emphasizes.