As the first vehicle segment in European road transport, the city bus has crossed the electric majority threshold: 56 percent of all new EU city buses were battery-powered in 2025, and when combined with hydrogen buses, zero-emission drives reach 60 percent of new registrations. Five member states bought no new diesel buses anymore. Data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), analyzed by Transport and Environment (T&E), show this transformation. What began in 2019 at 12 percent electric market share has become a new normal in six years.
From 12 to 56 percent in six years
When the EU adopted the Clean Vehicles Directive in 2019, electric city buses held just 12 percent market share. Then 50 percent seemed like an ambitious long-term target. Six years later it has been surpassed. In 2025, ACEA data show 11,607 new battery-powered city buses registered across Europe, a 48 percent increase from the previous year.
Germany reported 1,808 new electric buses, a 106 percent jump over 2024. Sweden recorded a 262 percent increase, Belgium 234 percent. The transformation is no longer a niche phenomenon; it is now affecting markets that long hesitated.
The surprising detail: Bulgaria, hardly known for environmental leadership in its EU role, ranks among five countries with zero new diesel bus registrations in 2025, alongside Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Slovenia.
Five countries buy no more diesel city buses
Beyond the five countries with 100 percent electric quotas, six others exceeded 90 percent: Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland, Belgium, Lithuania, and Romania. Britain, formally outside the EU single market, achieves 75 percent. Even Italy, known for its hesitant climate stance, registered over 1,200 new electric buses in 2025 at 65 percent electric share in the city bus segment.
T&E analysts calculate: if growth rates from 2023 to 2025 continue, all new EU city buses would be emission-free by 2028, seven years before the legal target of 2035. This scenario assumes national funding programs remain reliable and EU CO2 limits for buses are strictly enforced from 2030 onward.
In comparison: Shenzhen as an early blueprint
The Chinese city of Shenzhen completed the full electrification of its bus fleet by late 2017, the first major city globally to do so: around 16,400 vehicles. At the time, this was considered extraordinary pioneering work, driven by massive state subsidies and a unique urban planning situation. Looking back shows how far ahead Shenzhen was.
What a single Chinese special zone accomplished with one decision, Europe is now executing systematically: through city operators in Copenhagen, Rotterdam, and Helsinki; through tenders in Bucharest and Riga; through support programs helping municipal transit companies transition. This happens not through top-down directive but through accumulated decisions across 27 countries.
Two factors drive this. First, operating costs for electric buses are now lower than diesel vehicles. Lower energy costs, reduced maintenance, and less wear compensate for higher purchase prices. According to BloombergNEF, battery costs have fallen roughly 93 percent since 2010. Second, European cities have learned what infrastructure works: overnight charging at depots combined with opportunity charging at terminals.
Gaps remain in charging infrastructure
Structural bottlenecks remain. In sparsely populated regions and parts of Eastern Europe, public transit agencies lack resources for rapid transition. Long-distance and coach buses still show single-digit electric market shares: routes are long, charging infrastructure along routes is missing, and economic conditions for private operators differ fundamentally from urban public transit.
Yet the city bus has transformed faster than any other vehicle segment. It is the first European road transport segment to exceed the electric majority. If 2025 momentum continues, full transformation could be complete by 2028, three years before any EU country likely achieves complete passenger car electrification.