At the Zero Emission Bus Conference in Brussels this year, the targets discussed tell a compelling story: 90% of new city buses must be zero emission by 2030, and 100% by 2035. Europe’s public transport is undergoing a dramatic transformation, accelerating to near-complete electrification within a decade.
While policymakers focus on reduced emissions and cleaner streets, a secondary opportunity is building momentum. Each electric city bus carries a battery pack of 300-500 kWh, roughly six to ten times larger than a typical electric car. Unlike passenger vehicles, with unpredictable usage patterns, bus batteries follow well-defined duty cycles, making them ideal candidates for a second life use in energy storage.
As these buses complete their on-road lives, they’ll create an unprecedented wave of available battery capacity. Capacity that can be perfect for stationary second life applications. Even when a battery drops to around 80% of its original capacity (the typical threshold for replacement in demanding transit applications) it still has thousands of cycles of useful life remaining for less intensive stationary applications.
