Buses are the backbone of many European public transport systems and an important part of the municipal public transport fleet in the majority of the EU Member States.

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The policy note produced by the CIVITAS Wiki project, provides policy-makers and public transport operators with an overview of available bus technologies and guides them in the initial strategic choice of a clean and more efficient energy bus concept.

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The main conclusions of the policy are the following:

• Diesel buses are still the most economical buses with the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO).

• Natural gas buses are readily available from the major manufacturers, but costs are higher and emission advantages over diesel have diminished with the introduction of new diesel technologies.

• Buses running on biofuels are more and more widespread. Their TCO is comparable to the TCO of diesel buses.

• Diesel hybrid and gas hybrid buses can reduce GHG and pollutant emissions by around 20%. Hybrid buses will have somewhat higher TCO as regular buses but this may diminish over time.

• Full electric buses are starting to become commercially available.

• Hydrogen fuel cell buses are considered a promising option, but are currently still in an experimental stage.

• For both electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses high investment costs in infrastructure are necessary.

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For more information: click here.