Hamburg’s main public transport operator is losing faith in hydrogen buses. The head of the Hochbahn told the news agency dpa that five fuel-cell buses it has run for almost a year still have not passed final acceptance, and that hydrogen is “not our path”.
What happened
According to a report by Golem, Jens-Günter Lang, the Vorstandssprecher (chair of the executive board) of the Hamburger Hochbahn, has said he doubts hydrogen buses have a future in the city. The Hochbahn runs Hamburg’s U-Bahn (underground) network and a large share of its city buses.
“We have been operating five buses for almost a year and they have still not been finally accepted, because they do not meet the quality requirements,” Lang told dpa, as quoted by Golem. He added: “We recognise that this is not our path.”
Golem reports that the Hochbahn ordered the five fuel-cell buses from a Polish manufacturer in March 2023 as a trial. Lang said their complex technology means they are available for service less often than diesel or battery-electric buses. He also pointed to high running costs and described green hydrogen as “incredibly expensive”. Green hydrogen is made using electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind power.
The operator is instead putting its money into battery buses, which Golem notes produce fewer climate-damaging emissions in operation than diesel vehicles. According to the latest figures cited, the Hochbahn has more than 1,100 buses, of which around 430 are electric. It aims to raise the share of battery buses from close to 40 per cent to 60 per cent by 2031.
Golem places Hamburg’s experience alongside a recent analysis by the Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), an environmental and consumer protection organisation. The DUH surveyed Germany’s 40 largest cities about their bus fleets. It found that only 1.5 per cent of buses currently in service are pure fuel-cell vehicles. Among new orders, the fuel-cell share is higher at 10.9 per cent, but fully electric buses make up 63.4 per cent of new purchases.
The DUH concludes that hydrogen buses are not an economically attractive alternative to battery buses. In its view they are considerably more expensive and will not reach cost parity in the future. The organisation also said that hydrogen itself is expensive and scarce, and that a hydrogen bus needs many times more energy per kilometre than a battery bus that uses electricity directly.
Why it matters if you live in Germany
If you live in Hamburg, the bus that picks you up is increasingly likely to be battery-powered. With roughly 430 electric buses already in a fleet of more than 1,100, and a target of 60 per cent by 2031, battery vehicles will become a larger part of daily commuting over the next few years. Lang’s comments suggest hydrogen will play little or no part in that shift.
Reliability is the practical point for passengers. Lang’s main criticism is that the fuel-cell buses are ready for service less often than diesel or battery buses. A fleet built around vehicles that are more often available is what keeps timetables running, and that appears to be part of the Hochbahn’s reasoning.
For people elsewhere in Germany, the DUH figures show how uneven the switch to electric buses is. Across the cities surveyed, slightly more than a fifth of city buses already run on batteries. In Mannheim, three out of every five buses are electric. In Magdeburg, Krefeld, Wuppertal, Augsburg and Essen, according to the DUH, not a single electric bus is in service yet. If you live in one of those cities, your local operator is at a very different stage from Hamburg or Mannheim.
There is also a wider public money question. Local transport in Germany is largely run by municipal companies, so decisions about expensive vehicle technology affect how far local transport budgets stretch. The DUH argues that hydrogen buses cost more to buy and run, and Hamburg’s experience appears to support that view.
What to watch next
The first open question is what happens to Hamburg’s five fuel-cell buses. Lang says they have not been finally accepted because they fall short of quality requirements, but Golem’s report does not say whether the Hochbahn will return them, keep running them or retire them.
The second is the Hochbahn’s progress towards its 2031 goal of a 60 per cent battery bus share, up from close to 40 per cent today. That will show how quickly one of Germany’s largest bus operators can move away from diesel.
Third, it is worth watching whether other cities follow Hamburg. The DUH data shows that fuel-cell buses still make up 10.9 per cent of new orders. If more operators share Hamburg’s concerns about reliability and cost, that share may shrink further in favour of battery vehicles. Cities that have not yet put any electric buses on the road, such as those named in the DUH survey, are likely to face more questions about their plans.
Finally, the infrastructure question remains. As the caption on Golem’s report notes, hydrogen filling stations are few and far between in Germany, one more practical hurdle for operators weighing up the technology.
Source: Golem
Sources
- golem: ÖPNV: Hamburg kommt mit Wasserstoffbussen nicht voran, accessed 11 October 2026
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