Almost half of new city buses in Germany were electric in 2025 – report

The past year saw a sharp increase of electric city buses in Germany, according to a report by German consultancy group PwC. Almost 50 percent of all new city buses was electric, bringing the total number of electric city buses to almost 5,000 – approximately 14 percent of all city buses in the country. The number of newly introduced electric city buses in 2025 was almost double the amount of the previous year. 

“The fact that almost half of the new city buses were electric in 2025 shows that the electrification of buses has become market-ready,” said Maximilian Rohs, director of infrastructure and mobility at PwC . “At the same time, the continued transformation remains a significant challenge that can - also in the future - only work out with reliable framework conditions,” he added.  

Most of the electric city buses that were used in 2025 were battery electric, the report showed. Out of the 4,752 operational electric buses, about 85 percent were battery-driven, followed by about 13 percent of fuel cell-powered vehicles and almost 2 percent of trolleybuses with an overhead line. 

Despite this visible increase e-buses, high costs continue to hinder their expansion, according to the report. Acquisition costs are still higher compared to combustion engine buses. For instance, a single-battery bus with a length of 12 metres cost about 580,000 euros on average, compared to 310,000 euros for a comparable diesel bus, the consultancy found. 

Moreover, the report pointed out that the expansion will require more investments in charging infrastructure and grid connections. Government subsidies therefore remained essential to maintain the expansion. These subsidies would be necessary to reach the German bus companies’ plan to introduce about 6,400 new electric city buses by 2030, which would bring the total fleet to 11,000. This would bring the federal government’s target of having fifty percent of all city buses powered electrically in 2030 within reach, PwC added. 

Hamburg and Berlin are the cities with the highest number of electric city buses, with 709 and 277 vehicles in operation, respectively. However, the report showed that the number increased outside of Germany’s big cities as well, as electric buses are now used in 222 cities and regions across the country. In 2020, electric city buses were only present in 90 cities and regions.