Cape Town to expand electric bus fleet
The electric bus tender was officially issued by the Cape Town Urban Mobility Directorate last month and will close in mid-July. Under the tender, 668 million Rand (approx. 34 million euros) are to be spent on MyCiTi buses over the next three years. A total budget of 6.3 billion Rand (approximately 309 million euros) was allocated for the MyCiTi south-east expansion over a period of three years.
In addition to the comment on the feasibility study regarding the electrification of municipal vehicles such as refuse collection trucks and delivery vehicles, Theresa Uys, the Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, added that the city aims to transition its vehicle fleet to electric energy as its energy strategy is to be carbon-neutral by 2050. A pilot project with five BMW i3s was even conducted in 2020 for the Traffic Services Department, however, their combustion counterparts proved to be significantly more popular: “In 2023, only one out of the four cars was used at all.” Theresa Uys clarified that this was not the result however, stating: “The decrease in mileages were due to operational changes; however, this did not impact the outcome of the pilot.” The report also did not explain what happened to the fifth vehicle.
Last summer, a similar bus electrification initiative was launched in Cape Town, with the public transport operator Golden Arrow Bus Services (GABS) announcing plans to procure 60 electric buses per year until the entire fleet of 1,100 diesel buses was electric. Infrastructure is also catching up in the country, as a truck charging network is also currently under discussion.
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