Wrightbus delivers 12 more hydrogen buses to Germany, 130 due by year-end
Northern Irish busmaker Wrightbus has delivered another 12 of its hydrogen-powered Kite Hydroliner single-decker hydrogen buses to Germany, bringing the total number of its fuel cell buses in the country to 43.
The latest batch will run with operator WestVerkehr GmbH in North Rhine-Westphalia, serving towns near the Dutch border including Heinsberg, Hückelhoven and Erkelenz.
The vehicles join a growing fleet of Wrightbus hydrogen buses on the continent, with more than 130 units expected on German roads by the end of 2025.
“This benefits the environment and ensures that people in the region breathe better air” said Wrightbus CEO Jean-Marc Gales, while also praising the firm’s engineers in Northern Ireland for their role in bringing the Kite Hydroliner to life.
WestVerkehr Managing Director Udo Winkens described the new buses as a key part of the firm’s efforts to deliver “future-oriented mobility”.
The deployment was supported by €3.4 million in funding from the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV), with State Secretary Hartmut Höppner calling hydrogen buses “quieter, more climate-friendly, and a real boost to local quality of life”.
Local government was also quick to celebrate the move, with Heinsberg District Administrator, Stephan Pusch, saying: “The whole world is talking about the energy transition. But we don’t talk about it – we do it.”
1,000km range in 10-minutes
Each Kite Hydroliner offers a range of up to 1,000km, with refuelling times of under 10 minutes and capacity for up to 90 passengers.
The WestVerkehr fleet meets the VDV’s operating requirements and complies with the EU’s latest GSR2 (ADAS) safety regulations.
The buses are built by Wrightbus in Northern Ireland and join existing fleets elsewhere in Germany, including the 31 Kite Hydroliners already in service with Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH (RVK). That operator has eight more due for delivery before the end of the year.
According to Wrightbus, other upcoming deliveries include:
- 28 buses for Saarbahn GmbH
- 46 buses for Cottbusverkehr and Spree-Neiße-Cottbusverkehr GmbH
- 5 buses for Vestische Straßenbahnen GmbH
European support now in place
To support its expanding European customer base, Wrightbus has established a new service centre in Brühl, just outside Cologne which will operate under the “AllServiceOne” brand, maintaining buses of all types and from all manufacturers – hydrogen or otherwise.
The site also includes a dedicated parts warehouse, and Wrightbus says it is the first step in building a pan-European support network, modelled on the service structure it already operates in the UK.
