There will be no diesel buses in Madrid from 2023: only electric and gas will circulate

The European and Spanish institutions have been pressing for a long time to reduce the volume of combustion vehicles progressively and replace them with pure electric ones. In fact, the European Commission wants to remove diesel and gasoline from dealers in 2035. A situation that, however, collided with the fleets of some public bodies. Among them the City Councils, which in Spain are advancing at forced marches to get the diesel bus off the streets.

The last administration to make it public has been the City of Madrid. The city council of the capital has confirmed that As of 2023, all buses powered by diesel fuel will be withdrawn. The news is part of the Madrid 360 plan that seeks cleaner mobility. Thus, this year the units powered by diesel will be withdrawn and between 2020 and 2023, 520 buses powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), 100 electric buses and another six minibuses, also electric, will have been purchased. Madrid currently has 10 fully electrified lines.

A trend that other Spanish cities follow

This widespread change in the vehicle fleet has also been replicated by other Spanish cities they are betting mainly on electrification and gas.

Barcelona also announced a few months ago that would deeply renew his fleet in the next two years with the arrival between 2022 and 2024 of 210 green vehicles, of which 166 buses have to start this year. In total there are 78 fully electric vehicles, 108 powered by gas and 24 double-decker hybrids, dedicated exclusively to tourism. In 2024, the entire fleet of Barcelona buses will lack vehicles powered by diesel.

Leaving aside the larger cities with greater resources, Badajoz has positioned itself in recent years as one of the references. In 2021, seven combustion vehicles were replaced by as many electric vehicles and although the plans go through acquire another 15 green buses In the next two years, the City Council pointed out last year that these would change as they run out of useful life.

Bilbao has also taken the initiative to renew your fleet. In the last two years it has replaced up to 88 vehicles by other new less polluting. This has led the city to have 83 buses powered by gas and 11 fully electric. In total, 65% of the total fleet.

Pamplona also has its own fully electric line with six vehicles in motion. And the goal for the next few years is that ended this decade with two-thirds of the fleet powered by CNG and the remaining third using exclusively electricity. The project has been promoted with the use of Next Generation funds from Europe

And industry is also created

One of the big news of 2021 in clean urban transport came from Valladolid. The Anglo-Indian Company Switch Mobility confirmed last December that it will establish a plant to manufacture buses and electric vans with its own R&D space. A space that has to start being built on January 27 and that promises 2,000 direct jobs and up to 7,000 indirect jobs. The company assures that it will invest 100 million euros and that it expects to manufacture 50,000 units per year.

Photos | Le Minh Y Mart Productio