The largest electric bus fleet in Europe
Electric buses are gaining ground in Europe. Currently, the largest electric bus fleet in Europe is a fleet of 100 VDL battery electric buses in the Netherlands (operated by Transdev in the Amsterdam Schiphol area) but that position will be overtaken this coming December when a fleet of 164 ebuses will enter passenger service in the Groningen Drenthe area. Operated by Qbuzz, this fleet will consist of battery electric buses from bus manufacturers Heuliez (see photo), Ebusco (with a range of 400km) and VDL. The Netherlands will lose its leading position in December 2020, when the Gothenburg urban area in Sweden launches an electric bus fleet of 220 vehicles. Mainly operated by Transdev, this bus fleet will consist of buses manufactured by Volvo.
It is unclear who will come next. German cities have high ambitions but no 100+ fleets in the pipeline yet. Paris has taken very concrete steps with a framework agreement between its operator RATP and three manufacturers (Heuliez, Bolloré and Alstom) for a potential amount of up to 800 electric buses in the period 2019–2024. These numbers are however dwarfed by fleet sizes in China. The city of Shenzhen – home to ebus manufacturer BYD – has a total of 16,000 electric buses in use.
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