Electromobility in public transport
High run of the e-bus fleets in public transport threatens to stall
More and more e-buses are traveling in local public transport. But since the loss of federal funding, companies have been holding back with their plans.
E-buses have long been an integral part of local public transport. Since the beginning of the decade, the vehicle population for transport companies has increased to almost 3,400 electric buses, as can be seen from an investigation by the auditing company PWC. Almost half of them have been added to the past two years.
Almost 2,000 new vehicles this year
For this year alone, the transport companies plan to purchase a total of almost 2,000 new electric buses. Most of them are battery vehicles. Buses make up a smaller share that receive their electricity from overhead lines – as in the North Rhine -Westphalian city of Solingen – and fuel cell buses.
The cities in particular are pioneers in the e-bus high run. Between 2020 and 2024 alone, the number of municipalities with emission -free buses in public transport to 180 more than doubled. Hamburg leads the list with more than 565 vehicles. Berlin currently has 227 e-buses, but wants to almost double the number by 2027.
The rapid rise has several reasons. On the one hand, there are legal requirements of the federal government that a certain proportion of newly inclusive city buses must have emission -free drives. By the end of this year, this share for transport companies was 22.5 percent of new acquisitions. From 2026 it will be 32.5 percent. These quotas do not apply to buses that are used in rural regions in regional traffic.
BUND has set funding
On the other hand, the federal government has funded the purchase of buses with alternative drives. The old federal government has hired this funding as a result of the budget judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court. However, because there are always some time between ordering new vehicles and their delivery, many of the vehicles that are added this year still fall under the support of the federal government.
Thus, according to the current planning of the transport companies, which PwC has queried, the rise will slow down significantly in the coming years. As early as 2026, only around 1,200 new electric buses could be added, in 2027 even only around 450.
Costs for e-buses significantly higher than for diesel drives
The problem is the still high acquisition costs. Due to the lower energy costs, electric buses are significantly cheaper than diesel vehicles due to the lower energy costs. However, the need for more vehicles due to lower ranges, the establishment of a charging infrastructure and the price of the buses themselves lead to significantly higher capital costs.
“As a depot loader over the entire twelve-year life cycle (55,000 km of mileage per year), a battery that is newly approved in 2023 costs about 30 percent more than one diesel bus,” the PWC analysts write. This cost gap should decrease somewhat over the coming years. But she won’t completely disappear.
Emission freedom in new registrations from 2035
Without flanking financing and funding instruments, there is therefore a risk “that the switch to e-buses is at the expense of the public transport offer, which would contradict climate, traffic, social and structural policy objectives,” it continues. A corresponding commitment to the new federal government is therefore needed for such funding.
Time is pushing. As early as 2030, 90 percent of all newly approved city buses must be emissions-free as a result of an EU regulation, then all from 2035. The city bus fleet currently amounts to a total of around 35,000 vehicles. According to previous plans, around 9,100 would be equipped with appropriate drives by 2030.
dpa
Source: Stern
