A major study of the electric bus market reveals that the fleet has now reached 173,000. It provides pointers for the future
More cities in Europe and around the world are turning to electric buses (or ‘e-buses’) in an effort to go green according to this week’s ZeEUS eBus Report.
The long-awaited report, published as part of the Zero Emission Urban Bus System (ZeEUS) project backed by UITP (the European umbrella trade body), gives an extensive overview of the e-buses in operation in Europe today, along with the different solutions available.
It is clear that the electrification of public transport is high on the priority list of cities, public transport agencies and operators.
A wide range of technologies are available, but the report shows that every choice is dependent on the local situation and can result in a different total cost of ownership.
The report aims to provide an overview of experiences from various cities, and demonstrate the feasibility of implementing e-buses.
The ZeEUS eBus report examines 61 cities around Europe in the 20 countries that operate or test high capacity e-buses (at least 12m long or with capacity for at least 55 passengers).
The publication also lists the 27 manufacturers offering e-buses for the European market.
Who and where
The report reveals that 19 public transport operators and authorities, covering 25 European cities, have an e-bus strategy for 2020.
By then, there should be 2,500 e-buses in these cities, representing 6% of their 40,000 fleet total.
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 6,100 e-buses in service, representing 43% of their total fleet of 14,000.
The report also includes a market analysis conducted among bus manufacturers, which illustrates that European series production of e-buses should reach full maturity by 2018-2020.
These developments all bode well for the uptake of full e-buses in the near future, as demand and supply are now beginning to converge.
A burgeoning market
Looking wider afield, the worldwide e-bus fleet is estimated to have reached 173,000 in 2015.
China is leading this with 98.3% 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.
Europe follows Asia with 1,300 e-buses delivered or on order.
This figure includes battery buses (overnight and opportunity charged), plug-in hybrids and trolleybuses with batteries for off-wire operation.
The greatest number of e-buses is in Britain, with 18% of the total European fleet, followed by The Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland and Germany, with around 10% each.
Despite the variety of different technologies available, it’s clear that bus electrification is only set to grow further.
Politicians’ views
While the methods of achieving cleaner air vary there is a political consensus, supported by the EU. Says Violtea Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport: “ZeEUS is an impressive project with over 40 consortium participants and a budget in excess of €22m of which the European Commission co-finances €13.5m.
“Put simply, ZeEUS is the most important European project focusing on e-buses.
“In the light of the Paris Agreement reached at the COP21 to limit global warming to 2°C, transport has an important contribution to make to achieving the climate goals.
In an increasingly volatile oil market, the deployment of e-buses has accelerated very quickly in the last 5-10 years, driven more by environmental requirements than by commercial considerations.
In Europe, the starting point for the current development was the introduction, in the late 1990s, of the first small electric vehicles.
Deployment of minibuses and midibuses was followed by the full-scale operation of 12m battery e-buses at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
In Britain four e-bus locations were studied: Inverness (6 Optare Solos), London (76 buses, comprising ADL, BYD Irizar and Optare buses), Manchester (3 Optare Versas) and Nottingham (58, Optare and BYD buses).
The report sets out each city examined, and details the vehicles, routes, daily mileage and duty hours.
London’s fleet is working for 16 hours a day, compared with 10-12 in Inverness, 12 in Manchester and up to 15 in Nottingham.
Current e-buses
The report also details all the current e-bus model ranges from manufacturers who are selling into the European markets.
While ADL, BYD, Caetano, Irizar, Optare, Otokar, Solaris, Skoda, Solaris, Temsa, Van Hool, VDL and Volvo are names familiar to UK operators; Bluebus, Bozankaya, Chariot Motors, Ebusco, Evopro, Hess, Heuliez Bus, CRRC, Hybricon, Rampini, Safra, SOR, Ursus Bus and Vectia may not be.
This list illustrates the vast amount of R&D that manufacturers are investing to produce products. The goal of widespread electrification is on the cusp of becoming relativity over the next decade.
