The order fits within Minister De Ridder’s “turbo” of 400 million euros for rolling stock. With that amount, De Lijn will order more than 630 new e-buses this year: 290 buses that were already ordered in the spring and now the 268 and more than 80 on top.
Criticism
The order with the Chinese bus company BYD drew criticism from De Lijn in January last year, because bus builders Van Hool and VDL were active in Flanders. Not much later, the Kempen Van Hool went bankrupt and its bus activities were taken over by the Dutch VDL, which also has a department in Beveren-Roeselare.