Today, on 27 March 2025, Wiener Linien presented a hydrogen bus from the manufacturer Hyundai for the first time in the Leopoldau bus garage, which will go into long-term test operation. It is the first and so far only low-floor hydrogen bus with so-called ‘700-bar technology’ with a 90 kW fuel cell to drive a 180 kW electric motor.
The 12.3 metre long standard bus from the Korean manufacturer Hyundai was developed in close cooperation with the Slovenian bus manufacturer TAM and is exclusively available to Wiener Linien as a test bus for three years. This is the second bus that Hyundai Austria has provided to Wiener Linien as part of a co-operation.
Long range
The bus’s 700-bar hydrogen technology is currently unique in Europe; all other bus manufacturers rely on 350-bar hydrogen drives. The 700-bar refuelling system stores more hydrogen at a higher pressure. This enables a greater range, even exceeding that of diesel buses. The bus is refuelled at the hydrogen filling station in the Wiener Linien Leopoldau bus garage, which can be used at both 350 and 700 bar. It was built by Wiener Netzen, with Wien Energie supplying the hydrogen required.
The new test bus is an important part of Wiener Linien’s strategy to gain further experience in the transition to hydrogen technology and to usher in the future of urban transport.
2025 all about hydrogen
At the beginning of March, Wiener Linien tested an H2 bus from Arthur Bus with passengers for several weeks. The hydrogen era in Vienna will really begin in summer 2025, when the first of a total of ten hydrogen buses from Portuguese manufacturer CaetanoBus will be on the road on route 39A in Döbling. The twelve-metre-long, barrier-free buses will be refuelled at the hydrogen filling station at the Wiener Linien bus garage in Leopoldau.
New battery-hydrogen buses will also be deployed on lines 2A and 3A in the centre of Vienna from mid-2025. Following a Europe-wide tender, Wiener Linien is investing in ten new minibuses from the Italian manufacturer Rampini. These are powered by both hydrogen and electricity and are the first minibuses to utilise this technology. They will replace the purely electric buses on lines 2A and 3A, which have reached the end of their service life, and will be charged and refuelled at the Wiener Netze campus in Simmering.
Wiener Linien is therefore utilising the Wiener Stadtwerke Group’s hydrogen infrastructure, which was set up with foresight, for two new bus models.
Both the test buses and the new hydrogen-powered buses will provide Wiener Linien with important information on modern drive technologies on various bus routes in order to find the best solution for Vienna in the future.
The purchase of the H2 buses is funded by the EU through the EBIN programme of the Austrian Ministry of Climate Protection.
Technical data of the Hyundai test bus:
- Length: 12,270 mm
- Width: 2,550 mm
- Height: 3,450 mm
- Tank volume: 35.15 kg
- 100% low-floor
- 700 bar pressure level
- Hyundai fuel cell with 90 kW
- Drive: central engine with 180 kW, equivalent to 245 hp
- Passenger capacity: 79 passengers (27 seated, 52 standing, 1 wheelchair space)
- State-of-the-art driver assistance systems installed
- 3 double-leaf exterior swing doors
The test bus will be used alternately on all bus routes in Vienna. Travelling on the bus is free of charge.
(Info: Wiener Linien)
