Hydrogen vs. Battery Buses: A European Transit Reality Check

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Last Updated on: 14th April 2025, 05:07 pm

Two more hydrogen bus trial failures crossed my screen this morning, so I thought I’d share. Both are in Europe, but while one is in the capital of the EU, the other is across the Channel in the heart of the United Kingdom’s oil and gas industry. While I’m at it, I’ll provide a rundown on where all of the EU’s funding has gone, and what the constant refrains are.

Hydrogen Bus Deployments in JIVE (2021–2025) – number of buses, suppliers, hydrogen sourcing, and status.

The News

Lets start with Brussels‘ transit agency, STIB-MIV, which just announced that they would not pursue any hydrogen buses after ending the hydrogen trial. Instead, they would focus on battery-electric buses, while not ruling out hydrogen buses in the future, should reality warp and hydrogen become cheap and practical.

Brussels launched its hydrogen bus trial in 2021 with a single Van Hool A330 fuel cell bus, backed by EU funding through the JIVE program. The vehicle was leased for a two-year evaluation period, with the intention of assessing operational performance and environmental benefits relative to other low-emission technologies in STIB’s fleet. The trial included plans to run the bus using green hydrogen, aligning with the city’s broader decarbonization goals.

From a technical standpoint, the bus met expectations. It offered acceptable range, performed reliably in urban traffic, and integrated smoothly into regular service routes. But the primary objective was not just operational feasibility, it was to evaluate whether hydrogen fuel could be sourced affordably, reliably, and sustainably for long-term fleet use. That’s where the project faltered.

Brussels lacked a dedicated hydrogen production facility, so fuel had to be delivered. While the city initially hoped to use green hydrogen, supply constraints made that impractical. Instead, it relied on trucked-in hydrogen, with uncertain emissions credentials and elevated costs. The delivered fuel was significantly more expensive per kilometer than diesel or electricity, and efforts to secure a consistent supply of green hydrogen proved unworkable. These supply-side limitations—scarcity, price volatility, and infrastructure complexity—undermined the case for hydrogen in the Brussels context.

By late 2023, STIB concluded that the challenges were too great. The pilot ended, the bus was withdrawn, and the agency confirmed it would not expand hydrogen use. Instead, STIB is focusing its decarbonization strategy on battery-electric buses, which benefit from existing grid infrastructure and a more stable cost profile.

500 kilometers away as the hydrogen airplane doesn’t fly, Aberdeen, Scotland, is hydrocarbon-heavy but hydrogen-light. Aberdeen was one of the first cities in Europe to deploy hydrogen-powered double-decker buses, beginning with 15 Wrightbus vehicles in 2020 and adding another 10 in 2022. The project was backed by EU funding under the JIVE program, despite Scotland being part of post-Brexit UK, and framed as a key step toward a zero-emission public transport system. The buses were intended to be fueled by locally produced green hydrogen, with the long-term goal of supporting a regional hydrogen economy centered around the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub.

Despite early optimism, the project has encountered persistent challenges. Hydrogen fuel costs have been significantly higher than for diesel or battery-electric alternatives, with operational costs estimated to be around 40% higher per kilometer. These cost pressures were compounded by inconsistent fuel supply. Since July 2024, the entire hydrogen fleet has been inactive due to a shortage of hydrogen, leaving buses idle at the King Street depot. The local hydrogen hub, still under development in partnership with BP, has not come online quickly enough to support daily operations. As a result, the project, once viewed as a flagship for hydrogen mobility, is now constrained by the very infrastructure and fuel supply it hoped to catalyze.

The Rare “Successes”

Cologne is one of the few relatively good news stories for hydrogen bus fleets. Regionalverkehr Köln (RVK) has become the largest operator of hydrogen fuel cell buses in Europe, with a fleet that reached 101 vehicles by late 2024 and is expected to grow to 160 by the end of 2025. This scale has been made possible by strong federal support, including nearly €34 million in subsidies aimed at promoting zero-emission transport. A key factor in RVK’s hydrogen strategy is the availability of industrial by-product hydrogen from chemical plants in nearby Hürth and Leverkusen. Previously flared as waste, this hydrogen is now captured and used to fuel RVK’s buses. While it is not green hydrogen in the strictest sense, the use of this by-product is both cost-effective and environmentally beneficial, as it prevents additional CO₂e emissions from incomplete flaring, as hydrogen is a potent, if indirect, greenhouse gas.

Of course, the hydrogen supply chain is undoubtedly leaking like a sieve, another feature of hydrogen transportation schemes. Every time hydrogen leakage is measured anywhere in the value chain it turns out to be 1% or more at every touchpoint. South Korea found that 15% of all of the hydrogen cars and buses in the country were leaking hydrogen. Given its GWP20 of 37, that’s not exactly the climate win that was printed on the box.

While hydrogen remains central to RVK’s fleet strategy, the agency has also begun integrating battery-electric buses to address specific urban transport needs. As of 2023, RVK had deployed a small number of electric buses, including Solaris Urbino and E-Solar City models, operating on shorter urban routes where depot-based overnight charging is feasible.

Cologne’s relative success is in part because it is considered part of a broader hydrogen valley initiative, particularly within the context of the Dutch-German cross-border region encompassing North Rhine-Westphalia. This area was intended as a model region for the European hydrogen economy, aiming to cover the entire hydrogen value chain from production to consumption. If hydrogen for energy doesn’t fly in Cologne, in wasserstoff gruppendenken-addled Germany, it can’t fly anywhere. It’s worth noting that the most trusted Germany economic advisory body just published guidance with its French counterpart — that’s the two wealthiest, largest economies in Europe — to not bother with hydrogen for road freight and build megawatt-scale chargers for battery-electric freight trucks instead. That doesn’t bode well for expansion of hydrogen buses in Cologne.

Auxerre, a small city in Burgundy, has emerged as a rare success story in hydrogen transit. With strong financial backing — 50% from the EU and 50% from the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region — Auxerre deployed 5 French-made Safra hydrogen buses in 2021 and built a dedicated 1 MW green hydrogen production station, AuxHYGen, capable of fueling the fleet entirely with locally produced renewable hydrogen. The buses operate reliably, something that’s unusual globally, and Auxerre isn’t counting hydrogen leaks and GWP, so considers them zero emissions. The city announced plans to double its hydrogen bus fleet to 10.

Wuppertal’s hydrogen bus initiative, launched in 2019, is touted as a success, but that’s questionable. The city’s transit operator, WSW, deployed 10 Van Hool A330 fuel cell buses and built a co-located hydrogen production system at its municipal waste incineration plant. A 1 MW electrolyzer was installed to be powered by electricity from the waste-to-energy process into hydrogen, enabling WSW to produce over 400 kilograms of green hydrogen per day. This amount is sufficient to fuel the fleet, and the hydrogen is stored on-site, eliminating dependence on external fuel deliveries. As a note, most of the energy in municipal waste is from plastics, so this isn’t remotely clean hydrogen. Waste-to-energy is a waste management solution, but a climate disaster. Burying plastic makes a lot more sense, re-sequestering the hydrocarbons it’s made from.

The total cost of the Wuppertal project was approximately €12 million, with €5.5 million dedicated to the hydrogen production plant and €6.5 million for the buses. This funding was made possible through a combination of EU grants under the JIVE, JIVE2, and MEHRLIN programs, as well as significant support from the German federal and state governments. With the hydrogen station now fully operational, WSW fuels its fleet at minimal marginal cost. As of 2025, all 10 buses remain in service, and while WSW has not confirmed expansion, further growth of the fleet is under consideration, if they can get more money from governments.

Of course, what they are really expanding is their battery-electric fleet, with 10 on the roads, simple and much less expensive depot charging in place, and plans for a total of 150 zero emission buses by 2030. My money is on 140 battery-electric buses, and the 10 existing hydrogen buses being the end composition of the fleet.

Bolzano, Italy, has been operating hydrogen buses since 2013. In 2021, the local transit agency SASA expanded its fleet with 12 Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen buses, supported by EU and provincial funding. These buses are fueled with green hydrogen produced on-site using renewable electricity, aligning with South Tyrol’s Hydrogen Valley initiative (a recurrent theme is local industrial policies built on the illusion of a hydrogen economy). Operational costs remain a challenge. A study by Eurac Research found that hydrogen buses in Bolzano cost approximately €1.27 per kilometer to operate, compared to €0.55 per kilometer for battery-electric buses, making hydrogen buses about 2.3 times more expensive per kilometer. Despite much higher costs than for battery-electric buses, SASA continues to invest in hydrogen technology, planning to expand its fleet and infrastructure, including a depot pipeline connection to the hydrogen production center. The hydrogen for energy narrative remains strong in Bolzano, as it does in Cologne.

In the northern Netherlands, the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe are often cited as hydrogen bus success stories, but it’s overwhelmingly a battery-electric bus success story. By the end of 2020, public transport operator Qbuzz had deployed 30 hydrogen buses — 20 in Groningen and 10 in Emmen — using industrial by-product hydrogen from local chemical plants and supplemented by green hydrogen produced via electrolysis. These hydrogen buses have been running on long intercity routes.

Qbuzz is making much bigger investments in battery-electric buses. As of late 2019, the operator introduced 152 electric buses, 60 regional buses, and 92 city buses. Further expanding its electric fleet, Qbuzz ordered an additional 158 electric buses in 2023, scheduled for delivery starting in 2024. This expansion aims to ensure that 95% of the public transport buses in Groningen and Drenthe are emission-free by 2024, with a goal of achieving a completely zero-emission fleet by 2030. That it’s running double the number of battery-electric buses as regional people-movers than hydrogen suggests strongly which technology is going to dominate.

There’s no public data on comparative operating costs, but that they are getting most of their hydrogen from chlor-alkali waste byproduct undoubtedly makes it cheaper, as long as the chlor-alkali plants don’t shut down. That’s what happened in Prince George in BC, Canada, where plans to use the waste hydrogen in a nearby pulp and paper mill were canned when the pulp and paper mill closed, leading to its supplier of chlorine bleach pulling the plug too.

The Troubled Trials

Essen and Mülheim launched a joint hydrogen bus initiative in 2022, deploying 19 Solaris Urbino 12 Hydrogen buses with state funding. However, the project faced significant challenges when the State of North Rhine-Westphalia withdrew a crucial subsidy intended for a local hydrogen refueling station. As a result, Ruhrbahn, the transit agency, had to send each bus on a round trip of up to 89 kilometers to refuel in another city, leading to increased operational costs and inefficiencies. This situation has prompted both cities to reconsider their hydrogen plans, with discussions underway about securing new funding or potentially phasing out the hydrogen fleet.​

In parallel, Ruhrbahn has been integrating battery-electric buses into its fleet. As of early 2025, the agency operates several electric buses, including Solaris Urbino 12 electric models, primarily on urban routes in Essen and Mülheim. This diversification reflects a strategic shift towards more sustainable and cost-effective transportation solutions, especially in light of the challenges faced with the hydrogen bus program.​

Pau, France, was an early adopter of hydrogen-powered public transit, launching its Fébus Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in 2019 with eight Van Hool Exqui.City 18-meter fuel cell buses. Despite initial success, the city faced escalating hydrogen fuel costs and frequent technical issues, leading to operational expenses nearing €1 million annually. These challenges prompted Pau to reconsider its approach to sustainable transit. Consequently, the city has decided to transition to battery-electric buses, planning to purchase eight electric buses per year over the next decade, phasing out further hydrogen bus acquisitions.

Montpellier planned one of France’s most ambitious hydrogen bus projects in 2021, with a proposed purchase of 51 buses and a solar-powered hydrogen production facility, at a total cost of €29 million. However, after reviewing projected operating expenses, the city reversed course in early 2022. The president of Montpellier Métropole announced that hydrogen was eight times more expensive than electricity for bus operations, with an estimated €9 million in additional annual fuel costs compared to battery-electric alternatives. Given the region’s favorable solar conditions and the maturity of electric bus technology, the city opted to cancel the hydrogen plan and invest in battery-electric buses instead.

In South Holland, Qbuzz is scaling up its battery-electric bus fleet with 166 new electric buses ordered from Van Hool, including 112 placed in early 2024. In contrast, the province has maintained only a small trial of hydrogen buses, with just two to four units in operation, and no plans to expand the numbers apparently.

London continues to operate its fleet of 20 hydrogen buses but has redirected new procurement toward battery-electric models. The buses have proven technically capable, but Transport for London has acknowledged that operating costs remain significantly higher than alternatives. Hydrogen may still be considered for specific longer-distance or high-capacity routes where batteries face limitations, but there is no active plan to expand the hydrogen fleet.

Toulouse has taken a cautious approach, operating a small number of hydrogen buses while awaiting the outcome of regional hydrogen infrastructure projects. A planned green hydrogen hub in Tarn could shift the calculus, but until then, Toulouse is holding off on major investment. Of course, it’s running battery electric buses as well, and it’s highly likely future purchases won’t be hydrogen. While they haven’t published anything on operating costs, it’s not like they have different physics in that city.

Brighton and Crawley, through Metrobus, began operating 20 hydrogen-powered Wrightbus single-deck buses in mid-2023 on the Fastway BRT routes around Gatwick Airport, but the rollout faced major delays and operational challenges. The project was delayed by over a year due to issues securing safety certifications for the new hydrogen refueling station at the Crawley depot, which Air Products is building and promoting as Europe’s largest. In the interim, Metrobus was forced to rely on trucked-in compressed hydrogen — often grey hydrogen from industrial sources — which proved logistically difficult and insufficient. As a result, only about half the hydrogen fleet could run on any given day during 2023. By early 2024, more buses were entering daily service, but full operation remained dependent on the permanent station coming online. Despite the obstacles, Metrobus plans to expand the hydrogen fleet to 54 buses if the infrastructure stabilizes.

At the same time, Metrobus and Brighton & Hove Buses have been steadily investing in battery-electric buses. They have already placed 54 electric buses into service and in early 2024 announced an order for 20 more, bringing their electric fleet to 74 vehicles. The writing is on the wall for that hydrogen bus expansion.

Birmingham launched its hydrogen bus program with 20 Wrightbus double-decker fuel cell vehicles, deployed between late 2020 and mid-2021, supported by JIVE and UK government grants. The buses were integrated into daily operations by National Express West Midlands and refueled at a dedicated hydrogen station at Tyseley Energy Park, supplied by Air Products. While the fleet has performed reliably in service, hydrogen fuel has consistently proven more expensive than diesel, limiting the program’s cost competitiveness. By 2023, Birmingham and National Express concluded that hydrogen’s higher operating costs made it unsuitable for broader deployment and decided not to expand the hydrogen fleet, turning instead to battery-electric buses for upcoming replacements. The existing hydrogen buses remain in use, but no further purchases are planned unless fuel costs drop significantly.

Liverpool City Region’s hydrogen bus program, launched in 2023 with a fleet of 20 Alexander Dennis Enviro400FCEV double-deckers, has faced significant challenges, particularly regarding hydrogen fuel supply. Shortly after their introduction on the 10A route between St Helens and Liverpool city centre, the buses were taken out of service due to a global hydrogen shortage. Although a new supplier was secured, allowing a limited return to service, the fleet’s operation has been inconsistent. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has since shifted focus towards battery-electric buses, securing funding for 58 new electric double-deckers, indicating a strategic move away from expanding the hydrogen fleet.

De Lijn, the Flemish public transport operator, had tested hydrogen as early as 2014 but formally abandoned the option by 2023, dismantling its station and announcing no further interest in hydrogen buses.

In Wiesbaden, technical failures at the city’s hydrogen fueling station led to the early retirement of a recently deployed fleet, with all future procurement now focused on battery-electric models.

Hamburg was one of the very early adopters of hydrogen bus technology, beginning trials in the early 2000s as part of the EU’s CUTE program. High operational costs and the complexity of refueling infrastructure led to the phase-out of its early hydrogen fleet. Despite having been burned before, in 2025, Hamburger Hochbahn cautiously reintroduced hydrogen buses on a small scale, deploying five Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen buses refueled at a public station near Hamburg Airport. The move reflects continued interest in hydrogen, but only as a limited pilot rather than a core strategy.

In contrast, Hamburg has made substantial progress in electrifying its bus fleet. In late 2024, Hamburger Hochbahn ordered 350 battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro buses to be delivered over the next five years. Separately, the regional operator VHH received 95 new eCitaros in December 2024, bringing over a third of its fleet to electric.

The Themes

There are a few common elements running through these different experiences.

The most obvious is how expensive and difficult to source green hydrogen is. Hydrogen is the main reason why there’s such consistency in operating costs that are multiples of battery-electric. A couple of the cities have chlor-alkali plants so can use the waste hydrogen that comes out of them as a byproduct, or at least some of it, making it somewhat cheaper. However, cleansing hydrogen from those plants of trace elements of toxic and poisonous chlorine isn’t cheap. Along with human health concerns, trace amounts of chlorine would destroy fuel cells. There’s nothing cheap or simple about hydrogen as an energy carrier, even if the hydrogen is “free.”

A second obvious theme is the prevalence of hydrogen buses in industrial regions and cities that bought into the hydrogen for energy narrative that’s falling apart now. Cologne, Aberdeen, Bolzano, Groningen/Drenthe, and Wuppertal are all trying to be hydrogen valleys, centers of the hydrogen economy’s industry. That’s going badly because it was always a bad idea, devoid of thermodynamic and economic reality. Aberdeen is in the oil and gas city list too, along with Rotterdam and Hamburg, although Aberdeen’s economy is the least diversified. The oil and gas industry loves the idea of hydrogen for energy because it would either delay real action for another decade or end up with massive subsidies for carbon capture for blue hydrogen. If hydrogen doesn’t stick as an energy carrier, the fossil fuel industry is going to collapse down to petrochemicals quite quickly.

A third major theme is how most of the hydrogen bus cities have far more battery-electric buses and are expanding that side of their fleet rapidly, while hydrogen bus numbers stay small and growth, if any, is much slower. Even the ones trying vainly to push the hydrogen for energy overcooked noodle uphill are struggling to keep up the pretense that the hydrogen buses are a good or affordable idea.

The last theme is the huge lashings of taxpayer euros. Despite the unanimity of reporting of hydrogen buses being a lot more expensive to buy and a lot more expensive to operate, the EU and its member countries continue to pour money into transit agencies that want to buy the stupid things instead of buying a lot more battery-electric buses with much lower operating costs. While JIVE 2’s specific funding has ended, the European Union continues to support hydrogen mobility initiatives. For instance, the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) recently allocated €422 million to various projects, including the development of hydrogen refueling stations. Additionally, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, which succeeded the FCH JU, remains active in funding hydrogen-related projects.

When will the madness end? Well, as I noted recently, the Latourian network and narrative is collapsing. Major actors like BP, Shell, French and German economic advisors, Airbus and Norway in Europe have disarticulated — Latourian speak for removing themselves from the network — from the hydrogen narrative and have refocused on things that will actually work. That’s part of a global trend, with similar things happening in South Korea, Australia, and the United States.

The EU is now, in part due to the Braghi report and in part due to Trump’s trade war on everyone except Russia, highly focused on competitiveness. And from my perspective, they are focused on electricity, renewables, transmission, and storage as the cheap and hence economically beneficial energy system of Europe’s future. Hydrogen for energy’s days are numbered. The hydrogen bus fleets listed above are stalled or going in reverse for the most part. EU funding for this dead end will be over soon.

But that doesn’t mean the end for low-carbon hydrogen. It’s essential to clean up petrochemicals refining, hydrotreating biofuels, and making green ammonia for fertilizer and mining explosives. Those use cases and a few others make the current 100 million tons or so a global warming problem on the scale of all of aviation. My hydrogen projection uniquely shows declining demand, but I still see tens of millions of tons of low-carbon hydrogen required in our future decarbonized world. Focusing on that will be a major improvement.