Mastering changes in urban public transport: introducing high-capacity e-buses in cities

摘要

With 30 billion passengers in the EU per year representing half of all public transport passengers, quality and cohesion of the bus services are decisive. Public transport and urban buses are crucial for the image cities want to reflect on and e-buses represent a big change in how people experience their ride. Strongly contributing to cleaner environment, smoother driving and minimising noise levels, they help reinforce the attractiveness of the bus. Demonstrations of high capacity e-buses are an innovative and necessary intermediate step to demonstrate the economic, environmental and social viability of systems of electric buses for mass commercialization. The Zero Emission Urban Bus System [ZeEUS] project, co-funded by the European Commission's FP7 Programme and coordinated by UITP, aims to bring electrification to the heart of the urban bus network. Ten live urban demonstrations in nine European countries will test and validate a range of plug-in hybrid, full electric and battery trolley buses with fast and slow charging strategies with different energy supply modes. The results and experiences gathered will help support decision makers with guidelines and tools on 'if', 'how' and 'when' to introduce electric buses.