Daimler Buses to offer only zero emission buses in cities from 2030

Daimler Buses will begin offering only CO2-neutral city buses in Europe by 2030, with a view to selling only battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell models across core European markets by 2039.

One of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, Daimler Trucks’ bus-specific subsidiary Daimler Buses says its initial focus will be on the core markets of Europe, as well as those in Latin America.

Daimler Buses plans to launch its first all-electric inter-city bus from 2025, before introducing hydrogen-based fuel cell drive buses from the end of this decade.

“As a worldwide leading bus manufacturer, our ambition is clear: We want to make a contribution to contending climate change and be a driver of the change in transportation that is needed to achieve this,” said Till Oberwörder, head of Daimler Buses.

“To this end, we are pursuing a clear electrification strategy and putting buses with alternative drive technologies on the road in series production.

The plan will focus around its eCitaro, which will get an upgrade next year, when Daimler Buses aims to equip a hydrogen-based fuel cell as a range extender to its purely battery-electric city bus.

Daimler Buses expects this will expand the range of the eCitaro from between 280- and 220-kilometres, depending on the model, up to 400-kilometres with the range extender.

Daimler Buses will also offer the eCitaro with a new generation of high-performance batteries from the end of 2022, which increase the capacity per battery cell by around 50% for the same weight and enable reliable ranges of 280-kilometres for the solo bus.

This is potentially good news for Australian bus operators, considering that the eO500U was promised to be launched in Australia by the end of 2022.

Daimler Buses has already taken 100 orders for the eO500U chassis in its main Latin America market of Brazil, which is being manufactured at the São Bernardo do Campo site in Brazil, and largely based on the technology of the eCitaro with a range of around 250-kilometres.