Austria funds 289 electric buses

With the funding programme called Emission-free Buses and Infrastructure (EBIN), the Austrian Climate Protection Ministry is now supporting Austrian companies to convert their fleets to emission-free buses along with the necessary charging and refuelling infrastructure.

The Austrian ministry says that 184 purely electric buses are currently registered in Austria. This number is to be almost quadrupled to 682 by 2026 with the support of the EBIN programme.

According to the ministry, funding has been allocated for the first round of the EBIN programme. Ten projects in seven federal states were selected. Within the framework of these projects, a total of 289 zero-emission buses are to be procured. The program is not only about battery-electric buses: in Linz, the procurement of 16 24-metre double-articulated buses that run on the overhead line is also being promoted. Although the Ministry does not explicitly mention hydrogen fuel cell buses, the Ministry’s announcement does mention zero-emission refuelling infrastructure in addition to charging, which can only mean hydrogen refuelling for fuel cell vehicles.

Across all ten projects, including 70 zero-emission buses for Vienna, the funding total amounts to 122 million euros. These funds come from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) of the European Union. In addition, the Austrian government says a second round will start, for which new submissions are possible. These will then be evaluated by a jury of experts.

“The promotion of zero-emission regional buses is another important milestone on our way to independence from fossil fuels,” says Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler. “It is particularly gratifying that we can support a wide variety of projects throughout Austria with this funding programme. We are investing in zero-emission mobility locally. In the future, new climate-friendly buses will be on the road from the Ziller to the Mürztal, from the east of Linz to the centre of Klagenfurt.”

In March, Austria launched an analogous subsidy for electric trucks, called Emission-free commercial vehicles and infrastructure (ENIN). The funding volume amounts to 275 million euros until the end of 2025, with the first tender to start in mid-2022.

ffg.at (in German)