Transport

German public transport company orders 52 hydrogen buses for €30m after rejecting battery-electric models

Rebus Regionalbus Rostock says it aims to eventually replace all 170 of its diesel buses with fuel-cell vehicles

Rebus Regionalbus Rostock has ordered five of Solaris' new Urbino 18 articulated buses.
Rebus Regionalbus Rostock has ordered five of Solaris' new Urbino 18 articulated buses.Photo: Solaris Bus & Coach

A regional public transport company in northeast Germany has ordered 52 hydrogen buses from Polish manufacturer Solaris for €30m ($32.9m), as part of plans to replace all 170 of its diesel buses with fuel-cell replacements.

Rebus Regionalbus Rostock, which provides services from the port city of Rostock to surrounding areas, will spend a further €10m for two hydrogen filling stations and the conversion of its workshops, according to managing director Thomas Nienkerk.

The order — for 47 12-metre buses and five articulated models — means that the district of Rostock, which owns Rebus, will have the second largest fleet of hydrogen buses in Germany after Cologne by the end of 2024, when all 52 of the vehicles are due to have been delivered.

Nienkerk told local radio station NDR 1 Radio MV that battery-electric buses, which are generally considered to be cheaper to run than hydrogen fuel-cell equivalents, were considered but ultimately rejected.

“Because of the longer range and shorter refuelling time, we decided to go to hydrogen,” he said, adding that electric buses can only cover up to 130km on a single charge, but Rebus vehicles need to travel an average of 200km a day. Fuel-cell buses can drive up to 400km on a single tank of hydrogen.

The company will receive financial support for the move to H2 from the German government, which will provide 80% of the additional costs for the fuel-cell vehicles compared to diesel models. So it will only cost Rostock district €1.8m.
A recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers found that there are currently 145 hydrogen buses in operation across Germany, 72 of which are operated in the Cologne region — with 1,617 battery-electric buses on German streets.

By 2030, there will be 917 fuel-cell buses, compared to 7,371 battery-electric models, it said.

Solaris says it has already delivered more than 100 hydrogen buses to transport operators in Germany, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Poland.

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Published 21 April 2023, 08:09Updated 21 April 2023, 08:17