Alternative drives
Study: Around 15 percent electric buses in public transport by 2025
The federal government has supported transport companies with hundreds of millions of euros in converting their bus fleets. Thousands of battery buses are now in use. However, the ramp-up is too slow.
The number of electric buses in local public transport increased more than thirteen-fold between 2018 and 2023. “When the funding started in 2018, there were only around 200 electric buses in the German public transport bus fleet,” says the short version of a study by the consulting firm PWC on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (BMWK) on the consequences of electric buses. Federal Government funding.
“Five years later, in 2023, there were 2,640.” Last year alone, the number of e-buses in public transport increased by around a third or more than 780 vehicles compared to the previous year. The plans of the transport companies surveyed as of the end of 2023 indicate that around 7,400 buses with electric drives could be in operation in Germany by the end of 2025. That would be around 15 percent of the entire public transport bus fleet.
The majority of the fleet growth consists of battery buses
The study authors summarize a whole range of alternative drive types under e-buses: battery buses, trolleybuses, fuel cell buses and plug-in hybrid buses. However, the vast majority of the fleet growth consists of battery vehicles.
In total, around 50 projects from 65 transport companies were subsidized with federal funding between 2018 and 2023. Around half a billion euros flowed.
The fleet target by 2030 is still likely to be missed
Nevertheless, the authors of the study assume that the federal government’s climate protection goal, according to which around half of all city buses should be emission-free by 2030, will be missed with the current funding framework.
The Association of German Transport Companies classifies it similarly. Above all, he complains that the federal government discontinued a funding program for electric buses after the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling on the climate and transformation fund.
“The loss of federal funding will suddenly slow down the successful conversion of public transport buses to electric drives,” said managing director Martin Schmitz when asked. “Many of the transport companies now have to purchase cheaper diesel buses again due to economic pressure. This is not only bitter for achieving climate protection goals in transport, but also for the German economy.”
In some states and municipalities, fleet conversion has now stalled anyway. In the summer, the Hamburger Hochbahn announced that the ramp-up of electric buses, which was actually supposed to be completely completed by 2030, would be delayed by at least a few months. In Berlin, on the other hand, due to the tight budget situation in the state, the BVG will in future have to co-finance procurement through loans instead of through grants from the state budget.
dpa
Source: Stern
