Most new electric passenger buses are purchased in the Netherlands. This is evident from new figures from the European trade association ACEA.
In total, Dutch companies bought 446 electrically powered buses in 2020, calculated the trade association for the European car industry ACEA. Germany and Poland closely follow the Netherlands in the top 3 countries where the most electric buses were sold, with 388 and 200 units respectively registered. The three countries together accounted for 60 percent of all electric buses sold last year.
Source: ACEA
Only a small minority of all new passenger buses in the EU are electric. In 2020, this accounted for 6.1 percent of all buses sold. In addition, hybrid-powered buses accounted for 9.5 percent of all new buses in the EU. In addition, more than 11 percent ran on ‘alternative fuels’, which mainly comes down to buses that run on natural gas.
Most of the buses sold in the European Union last year still run on diesel. Their share has, however, become much smaller, now that the image of the fuel is deteriorating due to health and environmental disadvantages. Almost 73 percent of all new buses in 2020 will run on diesel, compared to 82 percent in 2019.
Brands
If you find electric (city) buses in the Netherlands, chances are they are from the Dutch brand VDL or the Chinese brand BYD. In the case of VDL, this is the electrically powered Citea (pictured), BYD mainly sells the K9 here. The Dutch manufacturer Ebusco is also doing well with the Ebusco 2.2. A separate role is reserved for Arnhem, where trolleybuses are still used. These are now buses from the Swiss Hess. They are electrically powered, but do not get their electricity from a battery but from overhead lines.