The Big Buyers is a European Commission Initiative (BBI) for promoting collaboration between big public buyers in implementing strategic public procurement. As part of the platform, three working groups on circular construction, electric vehicles, and zero emission construction were established. The first meeting of the Big Buyers working group on electric vehicles took place on the 30 of October in Procura+ Participant and GLCN City Rotterdam. 25 participants from 11 cities and institutions discussed the procurement of (heavy-duty) electric vehicles, in particular for waste collection, street cleaning, and goods delivery.

The cities of Oslo (Procura+ Participant), Paris and Helsinki (Procura+ Participant) presented three best practice examples. Each participant also presented their current work, ambitions and challenges related to the procurement of electric vehicles.
Participants also had the chance to see Rotterdam’s electric fleet: 8 electric vehicles (light commercial vans, a garbage truck, an equipment carrier and sweeping machines) were presented in operation. During the site visit the participants gained valuable insights on what type of electric vehicles are already on the market and in daily use by the City of Rotterdam.
In the upcoming months, this cross-European working group decided to work on three main actions:

• Creating a platform for collaboration and sharing on technical specification for these type of vehicles, which are unique for the public sector
• Joint market dialogue and engagement
• Joint statement of demand

Additionally, a market engagement event is planned to take place in the spring of 2020. The next meeting of this group will be a BBI Procurement Training in Oslo, Norway on 28 & 29 November 2019. This will be an event for all three Big Buyers working groups, with cross-cutting capacity building sessions on how to build innovation in procurement.