Italy’s fleet grew by 1,000 electric buses in 2024

Italy has a rapidly growing electric bus market: one in five newly registered buses there had a battery drive system on board in 2024. The figure for city buses was as high as 40 per cent.

According to figures from the Italian association Associazione Nazionale Filiera Industria Automobilistica (AZINA), 1,026 new electric buses were registered in Italy last year, a sharp increase of 162 per cent compared to 2023. The proportion of electric buses among all bus registrations thus rose to 21 per cent – meaning that one in five new buses in Italy in 2024 was a battery electric vehicle (BEV). If we focus only on city buses (Class I), BEVs even achieved a 40 per cent market share according to the statistics.

The overall bus market in Italy also grew strongly in 2024: to 4,920 buses and coaches, which corresponds to growth of 20 per cent compared to 2023. The other drive types performed as follows in the previous year: diesel drive technology accounted for 1,740 buses and remained in the lead, albeit with heavy losses (-25% YoY). Natural gas buses were the second largest group with 1,246 units and a strong increase (+76%), followed by battery electric buses with the aforementioned 162% boom. The statistics also list hybrids (772), liquid petroleum gas buses (49), fuel cell buses (44) and methane hybrids (43).

Within the bus market, the city bus market in Italy grew at an above-average rate: from 1,404 new units in 2023 to 2,440 vehicles in 2024 (+74%). In this segment, 994 battery buses were added, resulting in the above-mentioned 40 per cent share in this area. By contrast, the market for intercity buses in Italy declined slightly (from 2,153 to 1,791 units, -16% YoY), while the coach sector continued to recover (from 526 to 658 units, +25% YoY).

autobusweb.com (in Italian, sustainable-bus.com