TMB will have 25% zero emission buses in its fleet by end 2024. Line H12 soon to be electric

Barcelona’s H12 line will be fully electric by the end of the year, as ultra-fast chargers have been installed at both ends of the line and all buses circulating on the route will be soon electric. Charge management system will be done by Carmedialab.

TMB currently has 147 electric buses and will end 2024 with 242 zero emission vehicles (196 BEV and 46 hydrogen vehicles), representing 25% of the fleet.

TMB Barcelona H12 transitioning to zero emission

Bus line H12 continues to make progress towards becoming the third all-electric line of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) (following H16 and V15). At present, 11 buses on this line, more than half of them, are already electric vehicles thanks to the installation of the ultra-fast chargers recently completed by Endesa-Dominion (that will also be responsible for the comprehensive maintenance of the infrastructure). The funding for the new chargers comes from the European Connecting Europe Facility (CEF Transport).

In approximately 5 minutes, the vehicles can charge up to 90% of their capacity, taking advantage of the 500 kW power offered by the installation. Two of these chargers are located at the end of the Besòs/Verneda line, specifically at the terminal located at the junction of Carrer Concili de Trento and Carrer Andrade. The other two are located at the other end of the line, on Gran Via avenue as it passes through the Gornal neighbourhood. This arrangement makes it possible to take advantage of the bus stop time to load the vehicle without interfering with the timetable of the route.

TMB line H12 becomes fully electric

The forecast is that by the end of 2024, 100% of H12 buses will be electric. In total there will be 21 electric buses for the H12, the 11 that already are deployed today and 10 more that are due to arrive before the end of the year, all totalling 16.5 million euros, as TMB points out.

The new infrastructure is made up of two opportunity charging points at each end of the line, at the Gornal and Besòs/Verneda stops. These chargers allow the bus batteries to be recharged in just 5 minutes and have cost 1.3 million euros, TMB states. In addition, during the night the buses are charged at the Zona Franca bus station: a total of 21 chargers have been installed, for a cost of 3 million euros.

Hospitalet de Llobregat City Council is contributing to the decarbonisation of TMB’s public transport fleet with the subsidy it is receiving from the Next Generation EU funds for the purchase of 24 zero-emission electric buses, at a cost of 4.8 million euros which will come into service in 2024.

TMB President Laia Bonet explained that this installation “allows us to move towards an increasingly clean fleet”. In this regard, Bonet recalled “TMB’s commitment to end the year with 242 zero-emission buses, 25% of the fleet”.