Electric and innovative BRT for green cities: UITP coordinates eBRT2030 as new flagship project on electric mobility

UITP is proud to announce the launch of eBRT2030, the new EU project and major milestone in electric mobility that seeks to support sustainable urban transport by proposing innovative solutions for electric Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

Coordinated by UITP, eBRT2030 is launched across a two-day Conference (Brussels, 1-2 February 2023) gathering 45 leading partners in public transport, including the European Commission, Polis, TMB Barcelona, Volvo, Arriva, and many others.

Climate change and air pollution are of major concern in Europe and worldwide, and public transport is at the core of efforts for achieving sustainable mobility and improving the environmental footprint of urban transport. UITP acknowledges that BRT is one of the biggest innovations the bus domain has ever seen because of the positive transformative effects on cities in terms of reduction of congestion and air pollution.

Bringing together 45 partners from across the EU and beyond, eBRT2030 aims to demonstrate the applicability of a new generation of eBRT systems in different urban contexts with innovative solutions that are economically viable and enhanced with new automation and connectivity functionalities. Ultimately, the main objective is to drastically reduce emissions, pollutants and congestion, supporting the transition towards zero emission sustainable transport across Europe.

eBRT2030 will work closely together with end-users to understand how the developed eBRT services can be improved to support the needs of citizens. Following this, the project will heavily focus on advancing passenger experience and enhancing mobility access of underserved areas, or regions with increased transportation needs.

eBRT2030 solutions will be tested in real-life demos in Europe and beyond, bringing around the table public transport operators, bus manufacturers, technology providers and academia. An important focus of the project will be to translate and apply eBRT solutions not only in Europe, but also to tackle challenges on pollution and emissions in developing countries. 

Launching eBRT2030 to the European media with our press release

The eBRT2030 project is in strong line with UITP’s goals to help advancing electric mobility for cleaner and more sustainable cities. Already in 2016, UITP recognised a growing trend towards the electrification of buses through its ZeEUs project. Since then, there has been an explosion in the development, technology maturity and deployment of electric bus fleets. Much of this progress is due to international collaboration and research projects such as the JIVE projects, the Clean Bus Europe Platform and – more internationally – the TUMI e-bus mission.

One of the projects spearheading the large-scale uptake of electric buses was the ASSURED project,  that successfully concluded in March of last year. With a strong focus on electric buses, ASSURED has delivered key innovations that enable the optimisation of fleet operation. To summarise the project’s main outcomes, UITP has published the ASSURED Project Brief.