Italian bus manufacturer Iveco on Monday won a major order for 500 electric buses for Flemish public transport company De Lijn. Its closest competitor, VDL – which has a factory in Roeselare, West Flanders – complained about the award but was overruled by the Council of State.
Rulings published on Monday by the Council revealed that Iveco and VDL were the two winners of the split award for the De Lijn order. The larger portion, won by Iveco, was for 500 electric buses, each 18 metres long. VDL was selected to supply the remaining 75.
VDL’s bid was not selected for the larger contract because of its insufficient battery capacity. However, the company believed the decision was irregular. “We made our calculations. We should have won,” commented Peter Wouters, director of VDL Bus Roeselare.
VDL appealed to the Council of State, which, however, ruled that the selection had been done properly at De Lijn.
Ebusco, a Dutch bus manufacturer in which Belgian multimillionaire Marc Coucke has a stake, also appealed to the Council of State against the award, both for the order of 500 buses and for the order of 75 buses.
