The Danish capital of Copenhagen over the weekend completed its switch to a 100 per cent electric bus fleet.
The City of Copenhagen and local public transport agency Movia said the roll out of new electric buses on bus routes 19 and 5C, completed the capital city’s transition to a 100 per cent electric bus fleet.
Routes 19 and 5C are the last of 42 bus routes to be switched to fully battery electric following a 2016 decision by Copenhagen City Hall to convert all bus lines to zero emissions.
Interestingly, bus line 5C – the busiest bus line in Denmark and one of the busiest bus routes in the Nordic region, transporting approximately 17 million passengers each year – had already transitioned to biogas in 2017, but has now been brought in line with the 41 other bus routes.
“The fight for cleaner air has been a key issue for me since I entered politics, and that’s why I’m also really happy that we’ve now completely completed the transition to 100 per cent electric buses,” said Sisse Marie Welling, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen.
“It’s a huge milestone that Copenhagen is now a city where public transport is green and neither pollutes nor emits CO2. It makes a big difference to the climate and the air we breathe every day.”
A total of 37 new battery electric buses have been deployed to run on the 5C bus line, according to Movia, with another 15 to be running on line 19.
Movia has also converted the 350S suburban bus route to fully electric, adding 10 new electric buses, bringing the total number of new electric buses brought into operation over the weekend to 62, enough to reduce CO2 emissions by 2,000 tonnes per year.
This also brings Movia’s total number of battery electric buses running across its entire network to 794, working out to 72 per cent of the company’s total bus fleet.
“Congratulations to the Municipality of Copenhage,” said Jeppe Gaard, traffic director at Movia.
“Of course with the new electric buses on lines 19 and 5C, but equally with all of the municipality’s bus lines now running on electricity. It is a historic milestone that has contributed to Movia’s total share of electric buses today being up to 72 percent.
“The fact that we have managed to get this far with the transition to electric buses is largely due to the fact that Movia’s owners – the 45 municipalities and two regions on Zealand – have supported the ambitious goal that was adopted in 2016 from day one.
“Back then, 10 years ago, we decided together that half of the buses would run on electricity by 2030. That goal was already reached in 2024 through a shared will to act, which is something to be proud of.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.