Green Folly: Berlin’s City E-Buses Leave Passengers Out In The Cold…Diesel Buses To The Rescue.

Germany’s capital Berlin was forced to replace some of its electric buses with diesel buses due to range problems associated with the cold weather. 

Berlin. Germany’s fleet of e-buses had a hard time coping with the recent cold weather as dozens had to be replaced by diesel powered buses. Photo by Robert Radke, CC BY-SA 4.0

The cold weather worldwide is exposing the weakness of green energies and transportation systems based on them. For example Texas has seen millions of people impacted by rolling blackouts due to solar panels being covered by snow and wind turbines being frozen still.

The extremely cold weather has also led to transport disruptions all over Germany. One example is Berlin, Germany’s fleet of electric city buses.

23 e-buses had to be taken out of service

The Berliner Morgenpost reported some of the green electric buses operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) had been taken out service due to range problems in the extremely cold weather. Up to 23 electric buses had to be replaced by diesel-powered buses last Monday. Ultimately the German capital plans to convert its entire fleet to electric by 2030.

Hat-tip. Die Welt

According to internal memos provided to the Berliner Morgenpost daily, the very cold temperatures were too much for the electric buses’ batteries because so much power was needed for heating. A portion of the electric buses were substituted by diesel buses overnight because they no longer had enough power to complete their planned routes.

BVG spokeswoman Petra Nelken confirmed that the twelve-meter-long Solaris e-bus was not able to cope well with the cold. “According to the procurement contract and the specifications, they are supposed to be able to drive 130 kilometers even at minus 10 degrees Celsius, but not all of them made it,” she said.

The inadequate e-buses were replaced by diesel powered buses, which can reliably travel hundreds of kilometers before needing to be refueled.

Altogether 23 buses of the 123 electric bus fleet were taken out of service, thus creating delays and forcing passengers to wait out in the cold at bus stops.

When asked by WELT, Nelken also emphasized that the buses were often not completely out of service, but only had to return to the depot (and to the charging) earlier than usual.




5 responses to “Green Folly: Berlin’s City E-Buses Leave Passengers Out In The Cold…Diesel Buses To The Rescue.”

  1. RoHa

    “the very cold temperatures were too much for the electric buses’ batteries because so much power was needed for heating. ”

    The VW in yesterday’s story seemed to have no problem with heating.

  2. Modelle: Eisiger Februar in Europa? – wobleibtdieglobaleerwaermung

    […] ist hartnäckig in Deutschland und Europa. Übrigens: Was haben Berliner Busse und die grüne Stromversorgung in Texas gemeinsam: Ein […]

  3. stewartpid

    E buses …. not working is a feature & not a bug but we will replace all the working diesel buses by 2030 …. what could possibly go wrong.

  4. posa

    Meanwhile, it looks as if Germany has (again) avoided blackouts during this very cold, harsh weather. In contrast to Texas.

  5. V for Vendetta

    Thanks to the redundant power grid and the nuclear power of Germany’s neighbors?

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. More information at our Data Privacy Policy

Close