Madrid bets on CNG buses to replace the entire fleet in 2023

December 10, 2020. The bus fleet of the Municipal Transport Company, with an average age of 5.72 years, is one of the most modern in Europe and has vehicles that incorporate the latest technological advances in terms of safety, comfort, environmental requirements and universal accessibility. Thanks to the environmental and mobility policy being developed by the Madrid City Council, Spain, through the Madrid 360 Environmental Sustainability Strategy, as of January 2023, the EMT will no longer provide service with diesel buses and all its fleet will be made up of electric, natural gas and hybrid buses.

This reality will be possible thanks to the purchase of 520 compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles that the EMT has just put out to tender, an effort that pursues the objective of removing the most polluting fleet from the public body as soon as possible and thus improving quality from air. In this way, the forecast established by the air quality plan in force in this regard is advanced three years, where a 2025 time limit was set so that all EMT buses were clean fleet or ZERO. Currently, only 388 diesel units remain in the EMT of the 2,100 vehicles it has.

The purchase of the 520 CNG buses has a total budget of 161.2 million euros. The first 190 of this acquisition will arrive in 2021, allowing 258 diesel units to be taken out of the city, to which will be added another 100 electric vehicles and six electric minibuses. With this new equipment, the CERO fleet will grow to 179 units by the end of the year and the electrification of 8% of the EMT fleet will be achieved. The total budget for these 296 new buses amounts to 119.5 million euros. 2020 has been the year in which the largest tender for the purchase of EMT buses was carried out, 626 in total.

In 2022 another 200 gas buses will be added and the remaining 133 diesels will be taken out of circulation; in 2023 another 130 of CNG will be received, always maintaining the fleet of 2,100 buses for the service.

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