Göteborg’s large-scale electric bus transition shows positive results after five years

Five years after one of Europe’s largest simultaneous electric bus fleet replacements, Göteborg’s electromobility programme can now be assessed on the basis of more than just preliminary calculations and a few months of experience. The large-scale transition implemented in the Swedish city at the end of 2020 has since continued with further procurements, while an increasing amount of data is also available on operational, environmental and noise exposure experience from the first years. According to Västtrafik, the results have overall been more favourable than expected at the launch of the programme, and the experience gained in Göteborg is now being used in the electrification of another entire urban bus network.

Västtrafik was established in 1998 by the Västra Götaland County Council with the aim of managing public transport in the region as a single organisation. The company began operations in 1999 and now performs public transport planning duties across the entire territory of Sweden’s second most populous county. In addition to Göteborg, its service area covers numerous larger towns and cities, including Borås, Trollhättan, Skövde, Uddevalla, Alingsås, Lidköping, Mariestad and Falköping, as well as the region’s smaller settlements and rural areas.

On 13 December 2020, Västtrafik introduced a total of 170 new Volvo 7900 Electric Articulated electric articulated buses into service in Göteborg and the surrounding municipalities of Mölndal and Partille. The scale was outstanding even by European standards at the time, particularly given that the large-scale deployment of battery-electric buses could then draw on far less practical experience than it can today.

Moreover, the transition did not involve replacing a diesel fleet with inherently high pollutant emissions. Even before the large-scale electrification, Västtrafik’s buses were already using renewable energy carriers, primarily biogas and biodiesel. Nevertheless, a clearly measurable change occurred in the very first full year of operation. According to calculations published by the organisation at the end of 2021, nitrogen oxide emissions from bus transport fell from 108 tonnes to 58 tonnes in a single year, almost halving. Over the same period, carbon dioxide emissions declined from 16,500 tonnes to 14,500 tonnes, while particulate emissions fell from around 900 kilograms to 730 kilograms.

However, the benefits of electric propulsion in Göteborg were not confined to emissions figures. In connection with the city’s electric bus programme, researchers at the University of Gothenburg also examined the effect of replacing diesel-hybrid buses with electric vehicles on noise exposure and wellbeing among people living directly alongside bus routes.

The research was based on experience from an electrification project that preceded the large fleet replacement. On Göteborg’s route 60, the replacement of the hybrid buses previously used with fully electric vehicles began as early as the end of 2019 under the ElectriCity programme. Significant noise exposure, primarily at low frequencies, had previously been measured on certain sections of the route due to steep gradients. This frequency range is particularly problematic because building façades and windows attenuate it less effectively, allowing it to enter homes more easily. The researchers studied residents of the Masthugget and Lunden districts living directly alongside the route, while residents living further away from the service were included as a control group. Questionnaire surveys were supplemented by instrumental noise measurements carried out in homes.

The results showed a significant difference. The proportion of respondents who noticed bus noise fell from 75% to 39%, while the share of those who were very severely disturbed by the noise of bus traffic dropped from 26% to just 5%. The change was not confined to subjective perceptions of noise: the measurements also demonstrated an actual reduction in low-frequency noise exposure.

The research also found changes in the general wellbeing of the residents studied. The proportion of those who felt exhausted once or twice a week fell from 49% to 39%, matching the figure measured in the control group. The proportion reporting low mood decreased from 22% to 17%, and the incidence of daytime sleepiness also declined. The results should nevertheless be considered in the appropriate context: the study covered the area surrounding one specific bus route in Göteborg, so conclusions regarding the city’s entire population cannot automatically be drawn from it.

Meanwhile, the 2020 fleet replacement did not remain a one-off project. The electrification of Göteborg and the surrounding municipalities continued in subsequent years with further phases. In 2022, another 80 electric buses appeared on Göteborg’s core network and in the city centre and north-western areas, while 63 more electric buses entered service in Göteborg and Mölndal in 2023. In the same year, a further 42 electric vehicles appeared in the demand-responsive flextrafik service of the two municipalities. Across Västtrafik’s entire operating area, around 460 electric buses were running by 2023, meaning that approximately two-thirds of the region’s urban buses were already electrically powered.

The process has not stopped since. Under Västtrafik’s current plan, all of its urban bus services will be converted to electric propulsion before 2030. A further 53 electric buses entered service in Göteborg in 2025, while the introduction of another 93 electric buses is planned on the network in the Hisingen district in 2026. Electrification has long since extended beyond Göteborg’s boundaries: in recent years, electric buses have also appeared in urban transport in, among other places, Trollhättan, Vänersborg, Uddevalla, Skövde, Lidköping, Falköping, Mariestad and Alingsås.

The electric transition also serves to achieve Västtrafik’s longer-term climate policy objectives. The company aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from public transport per passenger-kilometre by 90% between 2006 and 2035. This is a significant commitment even considering that a substantial proportion of conventionally powered buses in Sweden already run on renewable-based fuels such as HVO or biogas. According to Västtrafik, in addition to reducing pollutant emissions, the new vehicles represent an advance in terms of passenger comfort, above all through their quieter operation.

The five years of operating experience are particularly interesting because costs were among the greatest uncertainties at the start of the large-scale transition. Electric buses had a higher purchase price than conventionally powered vehicles, while operators had little long-term data on energy consumption, battery behaviour and the operation of charging infrastructure.

In Volvo Buses’ current retrospective, Lars Bäckström, CEO of Västtrafik, said that at the start of the programme they themselves had expected electric operation to be more expensive, but this has not been borne out by the past five years. The higher initial investment cost has been partly offset by lower operating costs, and based on the experience available today, Bäckström would make the 2020 decision again. However, the assessment published by Volvo was not accompanied by detailed, comparable whole-life cost data, so it cannot in itself determine the extent to which the total cost of electric buses differs from that of the technologies used previously.

Göteborg’s experience is now also serving as the basis for another large-scale transition. In 2027, Västtrafik will convert Borås’s entire urban bus network to electric propulsion, with plans to deploy 75 electric buses. The vehicles will once again be supplied by Volvo Buses: the fleet will include single-deck and articulated Volvo 7900 Electric buses, as well as three-axle Volvo 8900 Electric buses. According to the manufacturer, the transition will affect 12 routes, which together carry around 10 million journeys annually.

The new, fully electrified urban network will start in April 2027, with Vy Buss taking over its operation. Preparations for the transition are already under way: the restructuring of the urban network will partly begin in autumn 2026, while the full introduction of electric buses will take place the following year.

In Borås, Västtrafik is starting from a very different position than it did in Göteborg five or six years earlier. Several years of data are now available from operations in Göteborg on battery performance, energy consumption, charging infrastructure and vehicle allocation matched to passenger demand. Västtrafik is therefore no longer preparing for the mass introduction of a largely unknown technology, but for the continuation of an operating model previously tested on a large scale.

Göteborg’s example does not, however, mean that the transition to electric buses can be carried out in every city in the same way or at the same cost. Network configuration, climate, daily mileage, available charging capacity, depot conditions and energy prices all fundamentally affect the economic viability of an electric bus system. Nevertheless, after five years, the Swedish experience represents far more than a demonstration project: the data on which the region is basing its next electrification steps have been gathered through the day-to-day large-scale operation of several hundred vehicles in Göteborg.