The German city’s bus fleet, known as Hamburger Hochbahn, will be buying 530 all-electric buses between 2021 and 2025.
The fleet already has 20 Mercedes eCitaro and 10 Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses, which are first steps into a plan to introduce no fewer than 530 electric buses by 2025.
This plan is part of a larger one to clean up transportation in the city.
The Hamburg Senate wants transport operators to only purchase zero-emission, fully electric buses from 2020 forward. This is a part of Germany’s wider environmental agenda, but it’s notable that Hamburg is one of the first cities to commit to the full electrification of its bus fleet.
The end goal is for the city to have only electric buses in its fleet by 2030.
Hochbahn hopes to obtain government subsidies for these investments, and the fund from those subsidies will go toward buses with
- depot charging, a type of system that charges buses while they are parked (usually overnight).
- Another type of charging that is on the table is called opportunity charging, where the bus can plug in at the terminal while passengers disembark or embark.
- A third option is to use hydrogen buses for long-distance services, and there are two already in a trial operation.
We still have a long ways to go when it comes to embracing electric buses, but the demand is definitely there.
Reference- Clean Technica, Sustainable Bus