Deutsche Bahn AG has ordered 60 hydrogen buses from Caetanobus in Portugal for its bus company DB Regio Bus, which aims to phase out diesel vehicles by 2038. A framework deal worth up to $42.4 million has been struck between Caetanobus and the German state-owned railroad company. The buses will be delivered by 2026 with the first vehicles to run in the federal states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein at the beginning of 2024.
The new H2 CityGold buses will have 34 seats and 47 standing places and Toyota fuel cells. A tank of hydrogen will be sufficient for the vehicles to go 350 km in the winter and 550 km (341.8 mi) in the summer. The Autokraft division of Deutsche Bahn already operates two pre-production models of the ordered buses as part of the eFarm hydrogen project in the Nordfriesland municipality of Schleswig-Holstein. They are powered with hydrogen produced locally by eFarm. DB Regio Bus is the largest provider of bus services in Germany with about 470 million passengers a year.
