On 10 October the Italian newspaper La Stampa<\/strong> published an article entitled: “Contract has been cancelled, electric buses remain in China<\/a>“. A content that points the finger at the 100 electric bus tender for the operator GTT Torino<\/a>. A story that the bus world has followed from the beginning, both for the big volumes at stake and for an investment considered too small.<\/p>\n
Poletto’s article was then used as a source by some Italian and international media, not least by the one you are reading right now<\/a>. This news has quickly gone viral. And like all, or almost all, the news that go viral… it has a taste of ‘sensationalism’ that should make us think about.<\/p>\n
We will certainly not reveal the entire content of the call, but we can only tell you that the fact reported by my colleague it totally untrue. “Everyone knows that the Chinese do this”, he said at the telephone. Me: “So… how?”. Answer: “They build the vehicles on the ships because it’s cheaper… do you remember the Chinese buses bought by ATAC in Rome? Well, all of them were made on the ship too”. I should have stopped here. Not only the Chinese don’t build buses on ships, but ATAC has never bought buses ‘made in China’. The problems surrounding the Turin tender are quite different and GTT’s statement is precise. We will know more in the next few days. But one thing is certain: GTT’s next electric buses will be made in a Chinese factory.<\/p>\n
Roberto Sommariva, Riccardo Schiavo and the editorial staff<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"