Invest in our planet: Flix is driving the Mobility (R)EVOLUTION  

Munich, 22^stof April 2022 – Joining forces with the Leaders for Climate Action, Flix is among world-renowned brands in the Earth Week initiative. Focused on how organizations can invest in the planet, the campaign is a perfect match for Flix’s vision of offering sustainable and affordable mobility for everyone. Investing in impactful measures to lower emissions and set new standards for carbon-neutral technologies, the goal is to lead and transform the future of mobility with renewable energies.  

Thanks to its large and modern fleet of long-distance buses powered by conservative diesel engines, Flix has some of the most environmental-friendly means of transportation available in the market. Together with a diverse portfolio of projects to further reduce emissions, such as biogas-powered buses, E-buses, and solar-panel-equipped buses, Flix’s commitment also stretches to the consumer with the possibility to compensate CO2 emissions with atmosfair. One of the next steps in sustainable mobility is under development with Freudenberg and ZF, with the creation of the first hydrogen-powered long-distance buses. 

The Flix (R)Evolution

2013 The company entered the market as FlixBus and started its revolution of long-distance bus travel and changed the way people travel across Europe. By gradually integrating a modernized Euro6 Diesel product, FlixBus has become one of the most sustainable means of transportation. The CO2 emissions speak for itself:  A passenger in Germany traveling by FlixBus accounts for 23g CO2 per passenger-kilometer. In comparison, a private car passenger’s carbon footprint is around five times bigger, and an airplane passenger’s even around ten times bigger

2018 Growing as a company, taking millions of passengers to their desired destinations, the focus and vision of Flix has not changed: offering more sustainable and affordable mobility for everyone. Aiming to take the sustainability commitment to the next level, together with BYD and Yutong, Flix started pilot projects with two electric bus models: running in Germany and France, they were the world’s first long-distance electric buses. Another milestone of the evolution of Flix was the introduction of FlixTrain in Germany. Running entirely on green energy, the fuel is carbon neutral.

In 2020 FlixTrain’s green journey continued by expanding to Sweden. 2020 Flix followed the sun: a FlixBus with solar panels started to run from Dortmund to London, today the bus is running between Paris and Eindhoven. For this pilot project, FlixBus worked with TRAILAR, a British company that offers innovative transport solutions to reduce the environmental impact of commercial vehicles. The solar panels generate energy for the bus’s electrical consumption which effectively reduces fuel consumption, leading to an average of 1.7 liters of diesel being saved per 100 km and CO2 emissions being reduced by up to 6,5%. Flix is currently investigating whether this innovative technology could be implemented throughout the fleet.

2021 The first biogas-powered buses were launched on the routes Amsterdam – Brussels, and Stockholm – Oslo. The bus between the Netherlands and Belgium is powered by compressed biogas (Bio-CNG) and is built by Iveco while the bus running between Sweden and Norway is powered by liquified biogas (Bio-LNG) and is a Scania model. Flix partnered with gas providers OrangeGas and Gasum, to ensure the most climate-friendly biogas. Using biogas-powered buses leads to 75% CO2 reduction compared to diesel operations on the same route.  Due to our modern and highly efficient fleet, 400.000 tons of CO2 from our passenger trips were avoided by choosing FlixBus and FlixTrain.

Future: Already having launched several pilot projects and planning on many more to come, Flix joins forces to develop a revolutionary product: Europe’s first hydrogen-powered long-distance bus. In cooperation with Freudenberg Fuel Cell e-Power Systems and ZF Friedrichshafen, a fuel-cell-powered long-distance bus is being developed and expected to be launched in 2024. The aim is to establish a high-performance fuel cell system that will replace conventional diesel propulsion to achieve climate neutrality in long-distance bus travel.