With the contribution of the LIFE programme of the European Union - LIFE14 ENV/GR/000611

Czech cities purchase electric buses

Transport companies have begun shopping for electric vehicles this year. By the beginning of next year, 65 new battery-powered electric motor buses should be seen in Czech cities. Rebuilding the vehicle fleet with more environmentally friendly vehicles is not primarily motivated by the benefit to the environment, the main attraction is a billion crowns of European funding for the purchase of electric buses distributed by the Ministry for Regional Development.

Transport companies still have the chance to receive support from regional cities that will distribute about 250 million crowns from the European Regional Development Fund. Another 750 million crowns will not be assigned directly for electric buses, but they can be used for purchase of alternative fuel urban vehicles and non-emission vehicles such as trams, trolleybuses or compressed natural gas.

The introduction of electric vehicles into service has a significant impact on diesel consumption. The reason is that the bus consumes about 30 times more fuel than a normal passenger car that is largely untapped for most of the day. Each thousand of the electrics in the transportation daily represents a saving of almost 80,000 liters of diesel. The number of electric buses in the world should increase significantly in the coming years. By 2025, according to Bloomberg, their number had grown to 1.2 million units and formed almost half of the buses in the world's fleets.

Source: iDNES

The LIFE GYM [LIFE14 ENV/GR/000611] project is co-funded by the LIFE programme, the EU financial instrument for the environment.

The sole responsibility for the content of this report lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EASME nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Start Date: 15 September 2015 – Duration: 35 months