Székesfehérvár e-bus embarks on a one-month test ride

The home-built vehicle is part of the Hungarian city’s Green Bus Project

From today, 1 February, a brand new electric bus will be running in the public transport network of Székesfehérvár for a month as part of the city’s Green Bus Project. The bus is assembled entirely at the Ikarus plant in the Hungarian city, which locals call Fehérvár (“white castle”) for brevity, and where the first monarchs of Hungary have been crowned and buried in Medieval times.

On his Facebook page, Mayor András Cser-Palkovics invited all residents to take a free ride on the e-bus and share their impressions, experiences and suggestions with the city government and bus builder Ikarus járműtechnika kft. Interested parties can find the e-bus schedule on the city website.

The public feedback will be important in the context of testing the new technology in real traffic conditions as a step towards the implementation of the city bus strategy. In the meantime, the city government is already negotiating with Volán, EON and other relevant companies to build the necessary infrastructure for the future e-bus fleet.

Achieving climate neutrality by 2050

Under the Green Bus Programme launched by the Hungarian government last year, from 2022 only emission-free buses can be put into operation in cities with more than 25 000 inhabitants. Székesfehérvár, with a population of nearly 100 000 (2020), is one of eight Hungarian cities involved in the programme’s pilot projects. The Green Bus Programme aims to move Hungary closer to meeting its commitment of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 under the Paris Agreement.

Responding to the government action plan to support local bus manufacturing, Ikarus recently ramped up production capacity at its Székesfehérvár plant to 3000 units. The figure is impressive yet low compared to the 6000 vehicles rolled out in the company’s heyday when Ikarus was the leading bus manufacturer of the Soviet Bloc.