Zagreb deploys 62 electric buses
The Croatian capital Zagreb has put 62 electric buses from MAN and Iveco with corresponding charging infrastructure into operation. The municipal public transport operator ZET procured the 30 solo electric buses, 26 articulated electric buses, and six electric midi-buses, with total costs amounting to nearly 56.8 million euros.
The electric vehicle procurement is part of a broader plan by the city of Zagreb to acquire a total of 500 electric buses over ten years, thereby fully electrifying the ZET fleet. After only two electric buses from German manufacturer MAN entered service last October, the newly procured 62 units represent a significantly larger step and a true milestone.
The electric bus models that MAN has now deployed are 30 solo electric buses of the Lion’s City 12E type and 26 articulated electric buses of the Lion’s City 18E type. In addition, there are six midi electric buses from Iveco with a body by the Serbian company Feniksbus. These bear the designation Iveco Feniksbus FBI 83 ME.
The buses have an expected range under optimal conditions of at least 500 kilometres for the solo buses, 450 kilometres for the articulated buses, and 260 kilometres for the midi buses. This allows the buses to operate for an entire workday without intermediate charging, with overnight charging taking place at the new electric bus depot.
The total purchase price amounts to almost €56.8 million. Of this, €45.4 million was provided with EU funds from the NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) in collaboration with the Croatian Ministry of Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure, while €11.4 million was financed from the budget of the city of Zagreb.
Zagreb now has a 20% electric bus share
The city of Zagreb sees this procurement as an important step towards modernising public transport and electrifying the ZET fleet. The mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević, said: “The citizens of Zagreb will notice the new buses as early as Monday, as there are a total of 62 vehicles. During peak times in the schedule, which comes into effect with the start of the school year, around 300 buses are in operation daily. This means that with this step, one-fifth of the entire ZET bus fleet has been electrified — a truly significant achievement,” said Mayor Tomašević.
The new depot for electric buses in the Podsused district in western Zagreb is a key element for expanding electric mobility at ZET. A total of 67 charging stations, each with two charging points, have been installed there, resulting in a total capacity of 134 charging points. The connected load for the entire facility is 3.5 megawatts.
The construction costs for the 8,500-square-metre site amounted to more than €9.8 million. Of this, around €7.8 million was financed through European Union funds via the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), while €2 million came from the budget of the city of Zagreb.
Tomašević explained that the site in Podsused will not be sufficient, and two additional locations in Zagreb will be needed to charge such a large number of buses. “We are planning for the long term, and our goal is to electrify the entire ZET fleet within the next seven to eight years,” he said. “This is just the beginning,” he added.
The new electric buses are also designed for people with limited mobility and feature air conditioning, modern safety systems, video surveillance, USB ports, and passenger counting systems. In addition to greater comfort, reliability, and safety for passengers, the electric vehicles reduce city noise and carbon emissions, as well as generally improving air quality in the city of Zagreb.