Germany funds 472 new electric buses for Hamburg

The German Federal Ministry of Transport is funding the procurement of 472 additional electric buses including charging infrastructure for Hamburg with almost 160 million euros. More funding decisions from the German Federal government will be handed over in the next few days.

The two public Hamburg public transport authorities to recieve the grants are the Hamburger Hochbahn and Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein (VHH). In one grant, the public transport operator Hamburger Hochbahn will receive around 97 million euros for the procurement of 289 electric buses and 486 charging infrastructure units. In another Hamburg electric bus grant, VHH will now receive around 59 million euros for the Elexity2022 project and thus support for a further 183 electric buses and 216 charging infrastructure units. Both Hamburg public transport companies are aiming to convert their entire fleets to zero-emission buses by 2030.

In announcing the funding, the German Federal Minister Dr Volker Wissing said (our translation): “472 more Hamburg city buses will be electric – for which we are investing around 160 million euros.” He noted that: “Buses in particular have an enormously high mileage in our inner cities, which is where we are targeting our support. Our support will help to electrify up to 40 percent of Hamburg’s city bus fleet in the coming years.”

This is not the first time the German Federal Ministry for transport has supported Hamburg public transport authorities with grants specifically for electric buses and the relevant infrastructure. The German Federal government already supported Hochbahn with twelve million euros for the purchase of 60 electric buses and 20 charging infrastructure units, as well as with 6.4 million euros for the new construction of Hamburg’s Gleisdreieck depot. The ministry also aready already granted VHH 15 million euros for the acquisition of 64 battery-electric buses and 1.8 million euros for the upgrading of the Bergedorf depot in Hamburg.

Hamburg’s number of electric buses has been growing steadily. In July last year, Mercedes-Benz delivered two eCitaro G electric articulated buses with solid-state batteries, with one each to Hamburger Hochbahn and Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein. At the end of 2020, charged Siemens with installing bus charging infrastructure in Hamburg at one of the largest electric bus depots in Europe. In this initiative, Siemens equipped Hamburg’s Alsterdorf bus depot with a total of 96 charging points as well as medium and low-voltage technology. Ealier in 2020, Hamburger Hochbahn awarded electric bus contracts to Daimler, MAN and Solaris with a total order of 530 electric buses.

bmvi.de (in German)