Cape Town: The Urban Mobility Directorate of the City of Cape Town will take delivery of its first electric bus in August 2026, with another 13 e-buses to arrive between October and December this year. The City intends to roll-out the electric bus fleet along the MyCiTi routes that operate in the metro south-east. It will include the new routes that will form part of Phase-2A.
All-in-all, the City of Cape Town will take delivery of 30 low-floor electric buses between August 2026 and June 2027. The first bus will arrive in August at the latest, if all goes as planned, then another 13 will arrive by December 2026. These are 12-metre Volvo BZRLE electric buses and the first where the bus bodies are manufactured locally, in Johannesburg.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Urban Mobility – Councillor Rob Quintas stated that the delivery of the electric bus fleet cannot be more timeous. As given the volatility of the energy markets and uncertain geopolitical environment.
Apart from lowering the carbon emissions, an electric bus fleet could offer multiple other benefits, especially as far as maintenance and operational costs are concerned. Some countries operating e-buses have noted a reduction of up to 70% in operating costs and they will be conducting research soon to determine what type of savings Cape Town can look forward to.
In coming months, the City together with the University of Cape Town, will undertake research to test. They will understand how electric buses are going to operate as part of the City’s MyCiTi bus fleet. The electric bus (e-bus) research is funded by the City of Cape Town and through a grant from the Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UEMI).
The e-buses will be tested on existing MyCiTi routes for a period of about 12 months to determine:
- how the buses perform on different route profiles
- how long the batteries last once charged
- the impact of passenger numbers
- the route profile and climate on the battery discharging
- how long it takes to charge the batteries and so forth
Considering this, Cllr Quintas said that the research will help them in understanding how the electric buses will perform in the local context, and what challenges they need to consider before they roll-out the e-bus fleet in 2027. This information will assist them with planning and preparations, such as the training of the bus drivers, maintenance requirements, passenger loads, fault reporting, and so forth.
If all goes as planned, the first e-buses will start operating by July 01, 2027 between Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha, Wynberg and Claremont, as well as the Cape Town CBD. The acquisition of more electric buses remains a priority and will depend on the availability of budget from the National Government.