The articulated electric buses by Solaris (a company that in 2018 registered a 36 per cent low or zero emission bus sales) will be delivered from spring 2020. The new vehicles ordered by BVG Berlin will be charged through pantograph at the terminal stops (a premiere in Berlin). The fast charging stations will be supplied by Siemens. The new vehicles are 18 metres long and offer space for 99 passengers. The electric articulated vehicles will be located at the depot in Indira-Gandhi-Strasse and will be used on line 200 (popular between tourists), BVG points out. Stopovers include the Philharmonie, Potsdamer Platz and Alexanderplatz.
BVG bought its first electric bus units last year with a tender won by Mercedes for 15 eCitaro and by Solaris, with its Urbino 12 electric, for the other 15. order for 15 fully electric Mercedes Citaro. The vehicles will be delivered in spring 2018, even if the first units has already been presented. Anyway, this doesn’t mean the city is stopping its investments on diesel bueses, as proved by the record-breaking order for up to 950 city buses, also Citaro, signed in 2018.
Vehicles and infrastructure will be procured as part of the “E-MetroBus” research and development project. The aim of the project is to test the vehicles on high-frequency bus service in Berlin. The “E-MetroBus” project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure with a total of 5.6 million euros within the framework of the Electromobility Funding Directive, BVG explains in a press release. The implementation of the funding directive is coordinated by NOW (National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology).
Many cities in Germany are increasingly implementing diesel bans in order to lower the CO2 and particulate pollutions. In August 2018, the Federal Ministry of Transport pledged a total of 125 million euros for the implementation of projects dedicated to the improvement of air quality. Also discount on public transport tickets are included among the measures taken in order to convince citizens to use collective transportation instead of private cars. The priority, anyway, Wirtschaftswoche reports, is the conversion of public transport to electric bus. The German weekly magazine has carried out a survey involving local public transport companies in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne and Frankfurt, i.e. the five largest German cities. The outcome? They are planning to purchase at least 3,000 electric buses by 2030.
