Skip to main content

The bus future is electric, says UITP

More and more cities in Europe and around the world are turning to electric buses (or e-buses) in an effort to go green according to UITP’s new ZeEUS eBus Report. The report, published as part of the Zero Emission Urban Bus System project, reveals that 19 public transport operators and authorities, covering around 25 European cities, have a published e-bus strategy for 2020. By this date, there should be more than 2,500 electric buses operating in these cities, representing six per cent of their total fl
January 11, 2017 Read time: 3 mins
More and more cities in Europe and around the world are turning to electric buses (or e-buses) in an effort to go green according to UITP’s new ZeEUS eBus Report.

The report, published as part of the Zero Emission Urban Bus System project, reveals that 19 public transport operators and authorities, covering around 25 European cities, have a published e-bus strategy for 2020. By this date, there should be more than 2,500 electric buses operating in these cities, representing six per cent of their total fleet of 40,000.

Meanwhile, more than 13 public transport operators and authorities in a further 18 European cities have a strategy up to 2025; by then, they are expected to have more than 6,100 electric buses in service, representing 43 per cent of their total fleet of 14,000.

The report also includes a market analysis conducted among bus manufacturers, which indicates that a European series production of electric buses should reach full maturity by 2018-2020. These developments all bode well for the uptake of fully electric buses in the near future, since demand and supply are now beginning to converge.

The report gives an overview of the electric buses in operation in Europe today, along with the different solutions available on the market, featuring 61 cities around Europe that operate or test high capacity e-buses (at least 12m long or with capacity for at least 55 passengers). The publication also lists 27 manufacturers that offer this type of vehicles for the European market.

A wide range of technological solutions exist for the electrification of public transport, but every choice is dependent on the local situation and can result in a different total cost of ownership and the report offers an overview of experiences from various cities regarding the feasibility of implementing e-buses.

Looking wider afield, the report estimates the worldwide e-bus fleet to have reached approximately 173,000 in 2015. China is leading this global mass deployment, with more than 98.3 per cent of the global total (170,000 buses) operating in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. These developments are strongly endorsed by Chinese government policy, which includes a ‘new energy buses’ programme, aiming to produce 1.67m electric vehicles (including e-buses), and to create 1.2m jobs annually from 2010-2020.

In terms of scale, Europe follows Asia with over 1,300 electric buses delivered or on order. This figure includes battery buses (overnight and opportunity charged), plug-in hybrid buses and trolleybuses with batteries for off-wire operation. The greatest number of electric buses of the above types can be seen in the United Kingdom, with over 18 per cent of the total European fleet, followed by the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland and Germany, with around ten per cent each.

Related Content

  • Industrial and commercial electric vehicles: biggest market biggest profit, says report
    July 22, 2016
    The new IDTechEx report, Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles on Land 2016-2026, provides an understanding of the EV business, hybrid and pure electric, which IDTechEx says will be responsible for around 60 per cent of the huge market of about $500 billion emerging in 2026. Indeed, it is and will remain more profitable than the highly competitive car market that gets all the press attention. The report gives information not available elsewhere, for example, putting the business in the context of w
  • 'Don't go from lockdown to gridlock', warns UITP
    July 29, 2020
    Coronavirus offers chance to rethink how we want to move about our cities, suggests report
  • UMii project highlights potential for urban mobility innovation
    May 17, 2017
    The initial findings of the UMii (Urban Mobility innovation index) project have been presented in the plenary session of the UITP Global Public Transport Summit (15-17 May 2017) in Montréal and highlighted the fact that innovation is more than technology-based. The findings of the UMii project, initiated by the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority and implemented by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), in partnership with Future Cities Catapult, also indicated that new types of governanc
  • Modernising India's bus travel
    August 29, 2012
    Award-winning ITS initiatives are promising modernisation of bus travel as a key part of development plans for cities of the Indian state of Karnataka. The Indian state of Karnataka is poised to launch the next stage of a major rollout of ITS technology on its bus network following the August 2012 go-live of an award-winning passenger information system. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), which is owned by the state government