Initial registrations of new and used buses (including minibuses) in Ukraine in May 2025 rose by 62% compared to the same month in 2024, to 210 units, according to UkrAvtoprom on Telegram.
Compared to April this year, demand remained unchanged.
According to the association, new vehicles accounted for 43% of this volume, compared to 37% last year.
As in the previous year, the most popular new buses last month were Ataman buses manufactured by the Cherkasy Bus plant, with 27 units registered. (last year – 22 units), followed by Ford with 22 buses (in May 2024, the brand also ranked second, but with seven vehicles), and the domestic Etalon came in third with 13 units (six units).
According to UkrAvtoprom, among used buses, Mercedes-Benz was the most frequently registered, with 41 units, followed by Volkswagen with 17 units and MAN with 13 units.
In January-May, a total of 1,030 buses were added to Ukraine’s bus fleet (+41% compared to the same period in 2024), of which 459 were new (+11%) and 571 were used (+81%).
According to data from UkrAvtoprom, in 2024, initial registrations of new and used buses decreased by 19% compared to 2023, to 2,241 units, including new buses by 24%, to 1,296 units, and used buses by 12%, to 945 units.
Initial registrations of new and used buses (including minibuses) in Ukraine in January 2025 increased by 37% compared to the first month of 2024 – up to 233 units, Ukravtoprom reported on its Telegram channel.
Compared to December last year, when a record number of buses was registered for the month, demand for them in January 2025 decreased by 29.4%.
According to the association, the share of new vehicles in this volume was 64% (last year it was 70%).
Most often among the new buses in January, domestic vehicles were registered for the first time – Ataman buses from Cherkasy Bus – 36 units, Etalon buses from Chernihiv Automobile Plant – 34 units, and ZAZ buses from Zaporizhzhia – 27 units.
The most frequently registered used buses were Mercedes-Benz – 25 units; VDL – 15 units and VW – 11 units.
As reported with reference to Ukravtoprom data, in 2024, the initial registrations of new and used buses decreased by 19% compared to 2023 – to 2,241 thousand units, in particular, new buses by 24% – to 1,296 thousand, used buses – by 12%, to 945 units.
Initial registrations of new and used buses (including minibuses) in Ukraine in 2024 decreased by 19% compared to 2023, to 2,241 thousand units, Ukravtoprom reported on its telegram channel.
At the same time, registrations of new buses decreased by 24% to 1,296 thousand, and used buses by 12% to 945 units.
The top five most registered new vehicles last year were Ataman manufactured by Cherkasy Bus (350 units), Etalon manufactured by Chernihiv Automobile Plant (254 units), Ford buses (191 units), Ukrainian ZAZ buses (154 units), and Citroen buses (122 units).
The most frequently registered used buses were Mercedes-Benz – 309 units; Van Hool – 103 units; VW – 78 units; VDL – 71 units and Iveco – 62 units.
The Association reported that in December, 330 buses and minibuses were registered in Ukraine – 30% more than in December 2023, and 27% more than in November 2024.
“This is a record number of buses over the past 35 months,” Ukravtoprom stated.
The share of new vehicles in total registrations amounted to 59% (195 units), which is 6 percentage points less than last year and 4 percentage points less than in November 2024.
According to the Association’s statistics, in December, the top five leaders in new bus registrations were Ataman (59 units – 10 units less than in December 2023), Ford (39 units against eight a year earlier), ZAZ (29 units – 2 units less), Etalon (28 units against 16 units) and Renault (10 units against one).
In Ukraine, buses are produced by Cherkasy Bus, Chernihiv Automobile Plant of Etalon Corporation, Zaporizhzhia Automobile Plant of UkrAuto Group, and Bas Motor LLC (Bogdan buses), but the bulk of their production is school buses purchased by regions under the School Bus state program.
In addition, large buses are produced by Lviv-based Electron Corporation (9 such buses were registered in December).
Ukraine has simplified the opening of international bus routes with the Czech Republic, exempting carriers from the need to confirm the presence of a parity partner from a neighboring country, the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure (MinRestore) has announced.
According to the report, the period for coordinating the route and issuing a permit will not exceed four months. Communication channels have been established between the countries specifically for the opening of routes.
The relevant changes were agreed upon at a meeting of the joint commission between the Ministry of Reconstruction and the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic.
“The growing demand for bus transportation requires the state to ensure an effective process of opening new routes so that the market can quickly respond to passenger demand. The Czech Republic is one of the most popular countries in terms of bus service, so together with our Czech colleagues we have simplified the procedure for opening routes,” Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Serhiy Derkach said in a statement.
He expressed hope that the decision would help improve transport accessibility, increase passenger traffic and help boost business.
The report indicates that the Czech Republic became the first country with which Ukraine ensured full compliance of regular bus routes.
This year, agreements on non-parity passenger transportation were also signed with Slovakia.
The Turkish company Anadolu Isuzu will supply new low-floor buses to Mykolaivpastans for a total of EUR 4.5 million as part of the Urban Public Transport of Ukraine project funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The announcement of the award of the contract based on the results of the tender was published in an annex to the Official Journal of the EU, which AllTransUA refers to.
The number of buses is not specified, however, as reported, in July 2023, the Chernihiv Automobile Plant of the Etalon Corporation stated that it had offered 55 buses for this amount, while two Turkish companies offered 26 and 28 units, respectively.
As reported, the terms of the tender provide for the supply of diesel-powered buses with a length of 8.2 m to 10.5 m, including basic and consumable spare parts, equipment and tools for maintenance and repair, and related services.
The buses must have a passenger capacity of at least 60 people, including at least 24 seats (plus one wheelchair space).
The first batch of buses should be delivered no later than five months from the date of receipt of the advance payment by the supplier, and the contract should be completed in 12 months.
Mykolaivpastrans announced the tender on April 5, 2023, as part of the resumption of cooperation with the EIB under the Urban Public Transport of Ukraine project.
In turn, in April this year, Kyivpastrans signed a contract with the same Turkish company for the supply of 12-meter fully low-floor buses for EUR 18.595 million (approximately up to 85 units) with EIB funding.
Ukrainian bus manufacturers have repeatedly noted that they are either unable to participate in EIB tenders due to the conditions or prefer foreign bidders.
Auto-Region, the exclusive distributor of Turkish Temsa buses in Ukraine, plans to sell about 100 buses of this brand in 2024, which will increase its market share to 10% compared to 2% in 2023, when 20 buses were sold, said Mykyta Haidamakha, head of the bus production department.
“Last year our share was 2%, but this was the beginning of a joint production of buses with Temsa in Ukraine, and this year we plan to sell at least 100 buses primarily through participation in the School Bus state program,” he said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday.
He clarified that to date the company has managed to achieve a localization level of almost 20%, and is now working to increase this share this year to 25%, taking into account the requirements of the localization law.
According to him, two models are now localized in Ukraine: the Prestij SX intercity bus with 30 seats and a school bus based on this model.
“As of today, the first production batches of these models are at the final stage of production and will be available for order starting in April,” the expert specified.
At the same time, he added that for the implementation of the production program, large contacts have already been signed with Ukrainian component manufacturers.
As the head of the company’s sales department, Oleksandr Butenko, clarified, Ukrainian components in the bus include seats, double-glazed windows, autonomous heating systems, and interior furnishings.
“Currently negotiations are underway with a Ukrainian company about installing a Smart Bus system, and this is a warning system that can find the nearest shelters, and even allows parents to see their children on the bus,” Butenko clarified.
Haidamakha, in turn, emphasized that the company is currently developing a large investment project and plans to protect it with the aim of starting production in Ukraine of all buses of the Temsa model line.
“In particular, yesterday we received the first updated model of a tourist bus with 55 seats, we are attracting engineers to study the product, and we will look for ways to localize it here,” he said.
In addition, the possibility of creating a school bus with an electric motor is being considered, the project of which is planned to be implemented in the near future.
According to him, the Temsa school bus is significantly more expensive than models from domestic manufacturers, its cost is UAH 4 million 950 thousand
“But we do not set the goal of competing on price. The main goal that we have set with our partners is not so much the development of production as the transfer of experience and standards operating in the world to Ukraine. We want to show by our example that such transport is more expedient, and change the existing market in Ukraine,” Haidamakha emphasized.
He expressed the opinion that Ukraine, when forming a state transport strategy, needs to understand how certain savings in procurement will then result in overpayment in the future, when the need arises to replace it with equipment that meets European standards.
Haidamakha noted that today in Ukraine many tenders for the supply of electric buses with funds from European financial institutions remain without applications and are postponed due to the fact that manufacturers cannot fulfill the customer’s conditions.
In addition, in his opinion, the bottleneck in the localization law is the inability to cover the existing demand in Ukraine for the supply of tourist buses for government agencies.
Auto-Region, BUS, Haidamakha, koralp, Kovbik, Pasichnyi, School bus, school transportation, smart bus, Temsa, Братчикова, Бутенко
