Frankfurt full electric by 2030. Starting from 5 Solaris Urbino 12 Electric

Frankfurt inaugurates its first “electric quintet”. Five Solaris Urbino 12 Electric have been recently presented by the urban public transport company ICB (In-der-City-Bus GmbH). From Sunday, they will be operating on Campus Line 75. In the same day, Frankfurt mayor Peter Feldmann announced that “the entire fleet will be zero emissions by 2030”.

The German transition to electric buses

Also neighbouring cities have already formalised ambitious projects for the energy transition of their fleets. Wiesbaden plans to convert its diesel bus fleet into electric by 2022, Darmstadt by 2025, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau. And, according to a survey recently published by the German weekly magazine Wirtschaftswoche, in 2030 the main five German cities (Frankfurt of course is part of the group) will have a total of 3,000 electric buses in operation. Hamburg has recently presented the first eCitaro (out of a 20 ebus order, plus 10 Urbino). Still the eCitaro has also been delivered to Berlin (BVG bought 15 Mercedes and 15 Solaris electric buses). Cologne announced the same goal of bus fleet electrification by 2030 and in the last days published a tender . Munich is beginning its transition.

Top comfort on Urbino electric buses

In any case, it has been specified that 80% of Frankfurt’s passengers already travel in electric mode, considering that subway, trams and suburban trains are already electric. The newly presented Urbino 12 Electric by Solaris are driven by the Zf AxTrax electrified axle with two in-wheel motors and equipped with 240 kilowatt hours of batteries. These are similar to those in circulation in Milan and Bergamo. The contract includes the delivery of a charging station for each bus (supplier is Medcom) for depot charging. Air conditioning, LED lighting, three LCD screens, USB ports and WiFi free connection complete the technological package of the electric buses delivered to Frankfurt, that can carry up to 70 passengers.