Five German cities to order 3,000 electric buses

At least 3,000 electric buses is what the five biggest cities in Germany want running on their roads by 2030, according to a new survey from Wirtschaftswoche. After Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne had announced their move, Frankfurt and Munich followed.

More and more cities are implementing diesel-bans to curb the pollution from CO2 and fine dust. The German Federal Ministry of Transport set up a fund with 125 million euros last August. The money is to fund emergency programmes for air quality, that is those for quick implementation.

On the level of transport, public transport operators have begun their journey to exchange diesel buses with electric ones. Hamburg’s transportation operator Hamburger Hochbahn for example decided to order exclusively electric buses as of 2020. They call it their Masterplan and it is the most ambitious of any Germany city. A spokes person told WiWo that Hochbahn expects half their fleet of 1,000 buses to run electric by 2025. The full switch will be completed by 2030.

Yet, also Berlin and Cologne and most recently Munich have pledged to switch to exclusively electric bus acquisition but only by 2030. Frankfurt then will aim to have half their fleet be fuel cell buses, and the other half electric. Dortmund has been more careful with their plans, stating the “intention” to switch by 2020, “as long as the industry can deliver” enough electric buses. This is a notion that marks many cities’ concerns.

wiwo.de (in German)