The significant expansion of Braunschweiger Verkehrs-GmbH’s (BSVG) electric bus fleet has also necessitated the development of additional charging infrastructure. The Mayor of Braunschweig, Thorsten Kornblum, and Wolfenbüttel’s Head of Urban Development, Klaus Benscheidt, have now officially inaugurated the new pantograph charging infrastructure for the electric bus fleet. Charging points are available at three locations across the network: two at the “Eutschenwinkel” terminus in Leiferde, one at Wolfenbüttel railway station, and one on Wilhelmstraße. In addition, an identical charging point has been installed at the Lindenberg bus depot.

Until now, Braunschweig’s electric buses have been charged exclusively at the depot. The new charging masts now enable buses to top up their batteries during regular layover periods. Typically, 20 to 30 minutes are available for this purpose, allowing up to 150 kWh to be recharged per session. Even under demanding winter conditions, with average daily temperatures below 0°C, this equates to an additional range of approximately 50 kilometres.

The charging points can deliver up to 300 kW of charging power. Actual charging capacity varies depending on the location and the available grid infrastructure. At the Eutschenwinkel site, BSVG has installed its own transformer station and connected directly to the medium-voltage grid, while the Wilhelmstraße and Wolfenbüttel station charging points are connected via the low-voltage network.

The 18 Daimler Buses eCitaro G articulated buses in the BSVG fleet can make use of the opportunity charging system, as these vehicles are equipped with roof-mounted pantographs. By contrast, the 36 MAN Lion’s City 12 E and 18 E buses are charged exclusively at the depot.

BSVG also operates five “EMIL” buses, whose batteries are charged via an inductive ground-charging system at selected locations. These vehicles continue to operate continuously on routes 419 and 429 – we previously reported here:

. Although the two other operators that had adopted the same inductive charging technology have since discontinued their services, and the system has therefore not been developed further to full commercial maturity, BSVG says this has no impact on operations in Braunschweig, it continues to use both the now twelve-year-old infrastructure and the vehicles.

“For us as a public transport operator, opportunity charging during scheduled service represents a genuine efficiency gain,” explains BSVG Managing Director Jörg Reincke. “We can recharge vehicles strategically during regular layovers and optimise vehicle range without having to maintain additional buses. At the same time, we increase the availability of our electric fleet and make operations more resilient overall.”

The planning, construction and preparation costs for the new infrastructure amounted to approximately €1.6 million. The project has received funding of €570,000 from the German Federal Ministry for Transport (BMV) under the “Directive for the Promotion of Alternative Drive Systems for Buses in Passenger Transport”. Funding is also being provided through the German Recovery and Resilience Plan (DARP) via the European Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) as part of the NextGenerationEU programme. The funding scheme is coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by Project Management Jülich (PtJ).