BVG presents new electric buses for Berlin

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  View of a new electric bus.

• The display of the new electric bus of the Dutch manufacturer Ebusco, reads "E-Bus Berlin" during the presentation of the new e-bus type "Ebusco 2.2" of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe at the BVG depot Indira-Gandhi-Straße.

138 electric buses are already in operation for the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) in the capital - 90 more will be added in the coming months.

The first vehicle of the new models from Dutch manufacturer Ebusco was presented by the company this Friday. "With the new vehicles, e-buses will also be on the road in the south and west of Berlin for the first time," BVG announced. "The corresponding charging infrastructure for 30 e-buses each is currently being built at the Britz and Cicerostraße depots." By the end of this year, almost 230 electric buses will be in use in the capital. According to BVG, this corresponds to around 15 per cent of all public buses in Berlin. By 2030, the Senate wants to convert the entire fleet to electric drives.

"More than seven years ago, we put the first four electric buses into operation and have been continuously replacing diesel buses with electric buses ever since," BVG Chief Operating Officer Rolf Erfurt announced on Friday. "During this time we have learned how to successfully convert the entire bus fleet in a city like Berlin and can now also increase the pace of vehicle orders."

Berlin is thus clearly more ambitious than the federal government. At the presentation of the new vehicles, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) confirmed the federal government's goal of converting half of all city buses with alternative drives by the end of the decade - the government does not insist on a specific drive technology. Experts assume, however, that a large part of the companies will rely on battery-electrics.