Berlin to gain 270 more articulated electric buses from Solaris

Berlin's public transport provider, the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), has put in a second order of electric buses from Solaris, this time, for 270 articulated electric buses. The new order is part of a framework agreement signed by both parties in 2023 for up to 700 articulated electric buses.

This second order from Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) follows the first order placed in December 2023 for 50 Solaris Urbino 18 electric buses, which should be completed in the course of this year. The 270 new units ordered will be vehicles of the same length equipped with “Solaris High Energy batteries”, which can be charged by plug or pantograph. The Polish manufacturer does not go into further detail in its announcement, but if the units are identical to the first batch, the new buses are likely to have a battery capacity of around 700 kWh and 41 seats.

Once the 50 Solaris units have been delivered in full, around 280 of BVG’s approximately 1,500 buses will be purely electric by the end of the year. As an interim stage, the public transport operator aims to have at least 500 electric buses in operation by 2027, which are to be temporarily charged in the depots, but also partly during regular service at a total of 36 terminal stops.

Since Berlin public services have seen significant budget cuts across the public service sector, the BVG has now softened its target of complete electrification by 2030. Since the beginning of the year, the company has been talking about achieving electrification sometime well into the 2030s, and HVO is also to be used as a transitional fuel.

While BVG CEO Henrik Falk specifically assumes that battery-electric buses will make up a majority of 80 or 90 per cent of Berlin’s mobility system by 2035, for the remaining ten to 20 per cent, he sees HVO100 fuel made from waste and residual materials as an option, as he revealed in statement in January in an interview with the German publicationTagesspiegel Background. While fuel made from waste and residual materials utilises legacy fossil fuel infrastructure, experts argue that it will be under higher demand than land mass can account for, since this is required for both SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) and maritime fuels to fully decarbonise both the shipping and aviation sectors.

solarisbus.com