Transport and Environment reports that about half of all European Union new city buses in 2024 had zero emissions.
Bus fleets of European cities are progressively being dominated by alternative fuels and electricity. Every year represents some milestone; Transport and Environment (T&E) sees 2025 as a turning point.
Rising to top diesel for the first time in 2023, electric buses accounted for 36% of new city bus sales in the EU.
Of all the new EU city buses in 2024, 46% were electric and 49% were zero-emission models. Among the early success stories of the European Green Deal, T&E claimed city buses are one.
Saying it provided a clear market signal that the days of diesel buses are limited, the Brussels-based NGO ascribed it both to city-level initiatives such zero-emission zones and fleet targets as well as new European rules from last year.
Consequently, the market for city buses is changing far quicker towards zero-emission technologies than what is mandated by the EU’s Clean Vehicle Directive and the CO2 criteria for trucks and buses. T&E projects that city buses will attain totally zero-emission sales by 2027 at the present rate of expansion.
It meant, for city dwellers, quieter streets and better air.
Since the adoption of fuel cell buses was faster than predicted, sales in 2024 exceeded the estimate given last year.
Fuel cell hydrogen city buses have doubled their market share to close to 3% in 2024. The fuel cells technology achieved major gains in Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy and the UK.
Unlike the group with zero-emissions, sales shares of other powertrains stayed constant at somewhat low points. Typically approximately a fifth of new EU sales, hybrid city buses accounted for just 16% in 2024. Gas city buses likewise stalled at their historically low level of 14%.
Leading European markets are the Netherlands, Finland, and Iceland; with 100% battery electric city bus sales in 2024, First among big markets—ones with more than 1,000 new city bus sales annually—is Spain. It surpassed the UK, which comes somewhat closely second at 56%, and attained a 57% zero-emission share.
T&E claims that, in a particular European nation, the market for city buses is somewhat tiny, with just a few hundred or a few thousand vehicles sold annually. Also interesting data is obtained by ranking nations based on cumulative shares since 2021.
Leading the change: less than 1% of new city buses starting in 2021 run on diesel fuel. Not far behind are the Nordics as well as certain East and South European nations. Roughly two thirds of new city buses in Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece starting in 2021 have been battery electric models.
Six nations— Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Estonia, Slovakia, and Croatia—have been changing noticeably slower than the rest of Europe.
