Hamburger Hochbahn plans to put up to 350 eCitaro buses into service
The fleet of Hamburger Hochbahn has a total of around 1,100 buses, of which 315 units are to run on electricity by the end of 2024. These figures demonstrate the significance of the contract now awarded to Daimler Buses: the 350 electric buses that are to be purchased from the supplier with the three-pointed star by 2030 make up almost a third of the Hochbahn fleet. By the early 2030s, the Hamburg public transport operator aims to have converted its entire bus fleet to emission-free drive systems.
The contract now agreed with Daimler Buses relates to Mercedes-Benz eCitaro and eCitaro G buses, although the intended mix of 12- and 18-metre models is not specified. The only relevant technical information is that the buses will still be equipped with the current battery generation (NMC3) – and will therefore not already have the new battery (NMC4) on board, which Daimler Buses plans to launch in 2026. It is not clear from the press release whether the restriction to NMC3 batteries only applies initially or for all units until 2030.
According to Daimler Buses, Hamburger Hochbahn AG was “particularly impressed by the low total cost of ownership (TCO) and the ease of repair of the eCitaro.” The manufacturer intends to guarantee the latter “over the entire long service life of the electric buses to be supplied by Daimler Buses.”
Hamburger Hochbahn AG is regarded as one of the German pioneers in the electrification of public transport. Like Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein (VHH), Hochbahn actually wanted to say goodbye to diesel buses by 2030. However, both Hamburg transport companies have since rowed back and are now aiming to make the switch “by the beginning of the 2030s.”
One of the reasons for the revised timetable is the fact that the federal government has severely curtailed funding. To date, it has covered 80 per cent of the additional costs for an e-bus, which is around twice as expensive to purchase as a diesel bus. However, Hochbahn is still not shying away from high investments: in July, the construction of the company’s first fully electric bus depot officially began. The depot is being built in Meiendorf on the north-eastern edge of Hamburg. Up to 130 electric buses are to be stationed there from 2026.
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