Cape Town’s new buses will be all-electric come 2025

Cape Town, along with 11 other major world cities, has vowed to shirk purchasing fossil fuel-powered buses in favour of electric models for its inner city transport networks by 2025.

The cities, which include Auckland, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Quito, Vancouver, Mexico City, Milan and Seattle, signed the agreement which is an extension of the already established C40 Clean Bus Declaration Act.

C40 cities, of which Cape Town is a member, is an initiative that aims to reduce harmful emissions in city centres and promote green practices.

The agreement also ensures that “major areas of the city” will be declared zero-emission zones from 2030.

There’s no real clarification on what these major areas could be, but the likelihood of car-free zones and more green spaces seems likely for the city.

The drive towards zero emission buses has been in the works since late 2016.

Cape Town Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA) announced in February that eleven electric buses will be added to the MyCiTi fleet at the end of the year. The three-year deal, reported Engineering News, would be worth in excess of R120-million between the City of Cape Town and Chinese manufacturer BYD.

In November 2016, mayor Patricia de Lille also announced that an electric bus plant will be built in Cape Town, but may only be operational in 2018.

Feature image: warrenski via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0, resized)