Line 144 in Munich is a cross city route servicing the old Olympic village area with 14 stops which is operated by electric buses only. Last month, the Munich Traffic Association (MVG) inaugurated eight new Ebusco buses and from now on, line 144 will be driven entirely electrically with these buses. This is the first fully electric line in Munich. The second line is already on its way; Line 100 will also run entirely electrically by the end of the year.
Commenting on the ongoing project, Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said: “By electrifying our bus fleet, we are making a major contribution to the fight against air pollution and thus to the quality of life in our city. Our goal is to run our entire timetable on electric buses. Public transport remains a forerunner in the field of environmental protection. We will continue the transition to emission-free public transport at high speed in our bus, tram and metro networks. We need an alternative to the car, and public transport is an efficient and attractive solution for this.”
That’s why eight new 12-metre Ebusco 2.2 city buses have been put into service. This complements the four examples from the Dutch manufaturer delivered to Munich earlier this year. As a result, a total of 12 Ebusco buses are now running through Munich. These are used on lines 100 and 144.
Peter Bijvelds, CEO of Ebusco added: “It is wonderful that our Ebusco buses run a fully electric line through Munich. For us, this is proves that the Ebusco 2.2 is a fully-fledged alternative to the traditional diesel bus. Our buses can easily run for up to 300 km on a single battery charge. As a result, they only need to charge at night to run their entire service during the day.”
At the moment it is not yet possible to run line 100 only on electric buses. This line from Central Station to Station East is a busy route. That is why articulated (18-metre) buses with a higher passenger capacity are still being used there. However, line 100 will become fully electric by the end of this year. This has been included in the Oberbayern region’s air purification plan.
Ingo Wortmann, CEO of MVG concluded: “Our goal is to convert our bus fleet almost completely to electric buses over the next 10 years and to run them on green electricity. Two fully electric lines are a good start to gain experience. A condition for this sustainable transition is that electric buses are just as efficient as the current diesel buses. They need powerful batteries with a long range. On the other hand, the buses should have enough passenger capacity to be able to operate on our busiest routes. Without these conditions, there will be a lot of extra costs for additional vehicles and drivers to provide the same timetable. There is still a lot of work to be done.”
Another important step in the sustainable transition to a fully electric bus fleet is the establishment of the charging infrastructure at the MVG depot in East Munich. This has now been supplemented with 10 additional Ebusco chargers. This means that 15 buses can be charged at the same time. The costs for the eight new buses and expansion of the charging facilities amount to almost six million euros. The government and the Land of Bavaria are supporting this investment with around €3 million.
