Race for Electric Bus Contract Heats Up with 21 Bidders

The Land Transport Authority’s second major electric bus procurement contract drew a large number of hopeful bidders.

As part of LTA’s push to electrify Singapore’s public bus fleet, half of all public buses will be electric by 2030. The PT602 Procurement of Elecric Buses involves the acquisition of 660 electric buses, marking a significant step towards a cleaner energy bus fleet. This is also the first tender called for electric double-deck buses to have the three-door, two-staircase configuration, designed to enhance commuter flow.

The 660 buses comprise 360 single-deck buses and 300 double-deck buses, following the previous tender of 420 single-deck buses under Contract PT601 (Procurement of single deck electric buses).

A total of 21 companies submitted their bids at the tender’s closing on 26 June 2025. In addition to automotive brands like BYD, Volvo and Yutong, which tendered under their own names, others manufacturers are represented through local partners.

Tenderers

As per government procurement site GeBIZ:

Compared to the previous tender (PT601), there are 11 new companies to the competition as colored in blue above. Among these newcomers is Alexander Dennis, which has a substantial operating fleet of Enviro500 buses in Singapore. The British bus and coach manufacturer currently has a product line of Enviro200EV and Enviro500EV buses, which are suited for Singapore’s operating environment.

In the list of 18 companies that participated in the previous tender, 10 companies have submitted their bid once again in the current tender, including the previous awardees BYD (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. and Cycle & Carriage Automotive Pte. Ltd. (partnered with Zhongtong Bus).

Gearing up towards this tender, bus manufacturers have designed double-deck electric buses for the Singapore market. 3 units were showcased at the LTA-UITP Singapore International Transport Congress & Exhibition (SITCE) last year: the BYD B12DS, Zhongtong LCK6126EVGS (N12D), and the CRRC eD12. Yutong has also unveiled a new-generation Yutong U12DD at its production facility in Zhengzhou, China, earlier last month.

However, 3 notable companies are missing from this round of bidding:

• Hong Seh Evolution Pte. Ltd. brought in a Ankai G9 electric bus for a LTA trial purposes. Its trial came to an abrupt end after being on the roads for 3 months, and the vehicle was subsequently listed on SGCarMart for sale.
• Lexbuild Motors Pte. Ltd. made headlines when it first unveiled its LexSWITCH E12 SD in Novemeber 2022, a 3-door electric bus with specification similar to other LTA trial buses. Despite the buzz, the bus was never registered.
• Scania Singapore Pte. Ltd. brought in a 2-door electric bus in 2023 fully decked out in LTA’s SG Bus livery, but the bus never made it to revenue service trials.

With the PT602 tender now underway, Singapore is one step closer to its goal of having half of its public bus fleet fully electric by 2030.

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