Vienna Sightseeing Tours to electrify its entire bus fleet

The Vienna city tour provider Vienna Sightseeing Tours is converting its entire fleet to electric buses. Vehicles from the Spanish manufacturer UNVI are being used as part of a political and commercial initiative.

Vienna Sightseeing Tours already has three electric buses from UNVI in operation. The company has now ordered 14 more. They will be delivered in the coming months. This will mean that the company’s entire fleet will have been converted to electric drives. The provider of city tours is pushing ahead with the drive transition in its own company as part of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Zero Emission Transport’ project.

At the beginning of June, a total of 32 companies from various sectors voluntarily committed to driving into Vienna’s first and second districts with zero emissions. While the majority of the participating companies are adapting their cars, vans or lorries for this purpose, Vienna Sightseeing Tours will be using fully electric buses in future.

“That’s remarkable,” says Davor Sertic, Chairman of the Transport and Traffic Division of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. “Because on the street, you mainly see smaller electric vehicles such as cars or delivery vans, but no double-decker buses.”

“We are delighted to be part of Zero Emission Transport and thus contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in Vienna,” said Lisa Frühbauer, Managing Director of Vienna Sightseeing Tours. “In the first five years of operation, our 17 electric buses will cover around 2.6 million kilometres and save around 3,100 tonnes of CO2 in the process.”

According to the manufacturer UNVI, the double-decker buses have a range of 200 kilometres thanks to four 72 kWh batteries, which “covers the daily mileage on the three Vienna Sightseeing Tours routes,” as stated in an accompanying press release. The 150 kW electric double-deckers can be recharged at two charging parks in the Vienna city centre.

The second provider of hop-on hop-off bus tours in Vienna also wants to electrify its vehicles: In June, the London-based sightseeing company Big Bus Tours announced that it would be adding another 40 electric buses to its fleet this summer. The XL electric buses with sun decks are set to enter service in London, Paris and Vienna. In the latter two cities, electric buses from the Chinese manufacturer Ankai will be used.

wko.at, viennasightseeing.at (both in German)