Cottbus puts first of 46 hydrogen buses into service — Germany's largest Wrightbus fleet

In eastern Germany, the first hydrogen buses operated by Cottbusverkehr and its subsidiary Spree-Neiße-Cottbusverkehr have entered regular service. The four vehicles now on the road are the first of a total order of 46 Kite Hydroliner FCEV buses from Northern Irish manufacturer Wrightbus. That makes Cottbusverkehr's the largest Kite Hydroliner fleet in Germany.

Split: Cottbus and the Lausitz region

The 46 buses will be divided as follows:

• 11 buses for Cottbusverkehr — city transport in and around Cottbus
• 35 buses for the Spree-Neiße-Cottbusverkehr subsidiary — regional services in Spree-Neiße-Ost

The buses were ordered back in April 2024. The fact that they're only entering service now comes down to logistics: there had to be somewhere to refuel them. Early April 2026 saw a mobile hydrogen station commissioned, which will supply the fleet until the end of the year. A permanent station — currently under construction at the Cottbusverkehr depot — will take over after that.

A real-world test

With these four buses, a trial phase under real operating conditions now begins. Cottbusverkehr wants to gather experience on:

• actual range under German winter and summer conditions
• how the buses behave during refuelling
• optimal scheduling of duties and refuelling
• the interplay of vehicle, infrastructure and drivers

The bus itself

The Wrightbus Kite Hydroliner is a 12-metre single-decker seating up to 90 passengers. The manufacturer claims a range of up to 720 kilometres per fill and refuelling in under ten minutes. The buses meet the requirements of the Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV) and the European General Safety Regulation (GSR2). The purchase is partly funded by a 3.1 million euro subsidy, plus additional support from the Strukturwandel fund for the transition of the Lausitz lignite region.

Wrightbus gains ground in Germany

After Regionalverkehr Köln (RVK), Saarbahn in Saarbrücken and WestVerkehr, Cottbusverkehr is the fourth major German customer for the Kite Hydroliner. That brings the German Kite Hydroliner fleet to a prospective total of more than 140 vehicles. For Lausitz — a region whose economy has historically rested on lignite — switching to hydrogen buses carries extra symbolic weight: from fossil extraction to zero-emission mobility.

Sources:

• LinkedIn post by Christian Marquordt, May 2026
• electrive.net: Cottbus operator puts first H2 buses into service (21 April 2026)
• Wrightbus press release: Cottbusverkehr orders 46 hydrogen buses
• regionalverkehr.de: Wrightbus delivers 46 Hydroliners to Cottbus
• Sustainable Bus: Cottbus orders Wrightbus fuel cell buses for Germany