Bus Operators in Germany and South Tyrol join forces for collective eco-bus purchase

This week, Wuppertal based WSW mobil GmbH has tendered the procurement of 63 fuel cell buses for operation in public transport. WSW is coordinating the joint procurement for its partners Verkehrs‐Verbund Mainz‐ Wiesbaden GmbH, traffiQ Frankfurt, Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH (all Germany) and SASA SpA‐AG in Bolzano (Itay) which are going to operate these buses in the next years.

By the reduction of emissions like nitrogen oxides, fuel cell buses can contribute significantly to the improvement of air quality in cities. Thanks to ranges of up to 400 km (in summer and in winter) they can be operated as flexible as Diesel buses. The necessary hydrogen is either a by‐product from the local chemical industry or was made by electrolysis from renewable electricity.

The coordinated procurement of buses based on a joint specification sheet targets at achieving lower prices for the buses. Andreas Meyer (WSW) said,

“The constructive cooperation of the enterprises – also with the aim to make public transport greener – lead to a fast consensus on the technical specifications. We hope to have found a good basis not only for the actual, but also for further procurement rounds. For industry, this also means to get a guidance line for reaching scale effects which are beneficial for both the industry as well as for the operators.”

The joint procurement activity is part of the JIVE project, an EU funded project deploying 139 new zero emission fuel cell buses across nine cities, the first deployment of this scale in Europe.