Coach company FlixBus quits only long-distance electric bus route in Germany
SWR
Europe's largest coach service, FlixBus, has said it will discontinue its only electric long-distance line in Germany due to several breakdowns and a lack of local technical support, reports public broadcaster SWR. The company, which dominates the German market, had opted for a bus model manufactured in China because no suitable options were available in Germany. But FlixBus reportedly struggled to secure the necessary level of maintenance support from its overseas vehicle provider. After operating for about a year on the roughly 100 kilometre stretch between Mannheim and Frankfurt, FlixBus' e-bus experiment will end, but the company is not ruling out new experiments with electric, fuel cell or biogas buses in the future.
German cities are keen to replace their current buses with electric ones, but there aren’t enough German models available, according to media reports. Market leaders Daimler and MAN have been slow to develop e-buses, leaving the lucrative, state-subsidised market to foreign players such as Poland’s Solaris, China’s BYD and various startups.
