The municipal institution “Center for Financial and Statistical Monitoring, Material and Technical and Information Support of Educational Institutions” of the Mykolaiv Regional Council will purchase 40 Ataman school buses manufactured by the Cherkasy Bus plant by June 1 of this year for UAH 147.83 million, compared to the expected purchase price of UAH 148.36 million.
According to a report in Prozorro, the city council signed the relevant agreement with Isuzu-Ataman Ukraine JSC on December 31 following the results of a tender in which the company was the only participant.
In particular, 39 regular school buses will be purchased for UAH 143.91 million (including VAT), at a price of UAH 3.69 million per bus, and one bus with two seats for schoolchildren with limited mobility will be purchased for UAH 3.92 million.
Full payment is expected within 10 banking days.
Isuzu-Ataman Ukraine will supply buses manufactured in 2025 that meet Euro 5 environmental standards, with 28 seats for schoolchildren and three for accompanying persons and crew members. The degree of localization is 68.8%.
The specialized bus has 21 seats for schoolchildren, including two for children with limited mobility, as well as two seats for accompanying persons. The degree of localization is almost 71%.
According to YouControl, PJSC Isuzu-Ataman Ukraine, which, among other things, trades in Isuzu and Ataman vehicles, received UAH 49.2 million in net profit in January-September 2025, which is 56% more than in the same period in 2024, and its net income increased 2.4 times to UAH 408 million.
As reported, the state budget subsidy for the purchase of school buses next year is UAH 2 billion, compared to UAH 1.6 billion in 2025.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the Mykolaiv region purchased 25 buses last year. The subsidy from the state budget for the region amounted to UAH 23.54 million.
Since 2024, the School Bus program has been implemented thanks to financial cooperation between the EU and Ukraine within the framework of the Ukraine Facility instrument. In particular, school buses must have seats for students with limited mobility.
The required level of localization in 2026 is at least 30%.
According to preliminary data, 720 school buses were implemented in 2025 with state subsidies and co-financing from local communities.
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
