With the aim of renewing the, often highly polluting, Italian bus fleet for public transport, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development has made available to manufacturers a fund of 300 million euro from the country's National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

"With these resources, we are launching an initiative that aims to encourage the creation and development of a competitive bus production chain in Italy, capable of intercepting market demand for transport vehicles designed to renew the bus fleet in our cities and thus promote sustainable mobility," said Giancarlo Giorgetti, the Economic Development Minister.

The Ministry's incentives are being made available to one of the industrial sectors considered to be of strategic interest for the country's sustainable development: electric mobility. The Ministry explains that the incentives will be granted to companies that present investment programmes aimed at creating innovative and highly technological solutions. Specifically, applicants must present programmes that concern:

• The optimisation and production of electric traction systems;
• Efficiency improvements to new bus architectures, with a view to lightening and digitalising vehicles to make them more compatible with electric traction;
• The optimisation of industrial supply chains for the production of components for public transport vehicles, such as sensors and digital systems to support continuous monitoring and predictive maintenance, as well as digital components for assisted driving, fleet management, transport safety and bus-infrastructure dialogue; or
• The development, standardisation and industrialisation of charging systems aimed at supporting the deployment of electric buses.

Starting from noon on 26 April 2022, it is possible to submit applications for subsidies online. This initiative responds and supports the green and digital transformation of the bus industry in Italy, in accordance with the decree from 29 November 2021 of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility.

For more information see the Ministry of Economic Development's website.

Original article published by Ministero dello sviluppo economico Italiano on 12 April 2022.

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