https://theprogressnetwork.org/electric-bus-revolution/
"There is nothing like experiencing climate solutions firsthand to convince you
that the transition is worth it. I’m currently spending a few months in the
Netherlands, one of the European leaders for bus electrification. Here, along
with Finland and Iceland, all new urban buses are electric.
Riding them is truly pleasant: they’re quiet, vibrate minimally, and leave no
cloud of diesel exhaust in their wake, important to the many bikers here in the
cycling capital of the world. They have long ranges—the full route of the line
I use most often is nearly 100 kilometers (about 60 miles), and that is a
quarter of what is possible for the battery—and seeing them “top up” at the
depots is fun. They plug in, but on some buses, the battery can also pop out of
the roof and connect to overhead electricity.
It’s not just the usual climate high achievers that are electrifying their
buses. City buses are going green all over the world. Across the European
Union, in 2024, nearly half of all new city buses were zero-emission, most of
them battery-electric.
In terms of absolute numbers, China has topped the leaderboard for years. The
country has over half a million battery-electric and hydrogen fuel buses on its
roads, which is about 80 percent of its public buses, according to the Ministry
of Transport. Accomplishing that feat took a mere ten years.
Chinese companies are also the manufacturers behind the cheap e-buses gaining
ground across Latin America. Chile and Colombia are both aiming for all new bus
sales to be electric by 2035, and their capitals—as well as Ecuador’s Quito,
São Paulo, in Brazil, and Guadalajara, Mexico—already boast e-bus fleets in the
thousands. A study of 32 Latin American cities expects the total number of
e-buses there to rise to 25,000 by 2030, and 55,000 by 2050.
In late March, Delhi, India, announced plans to transition to e-buses. Mumbai
is also looking to go all-electric by 2027, with the western Indian city hoping
to swell its e-bus numbers to 8,000, from just over the 700 it has currently.
Jakarta, Indonesia, one of the most polluted cities in the world, is also
pushing to electrify its fleet of 10,000 buses, with the help of the United
Nations. The city has some ways to go: it now has 300 e-buses in circulation.
Electric buses are even making their way into Africa, where Rwanda’s capital,
Kigali, will receive its first batch of 28 e-buses in May, following a pilot
program a handful of years ago. Rwanda and South Africa are both anticipating
deliveries of over 100 e-buses by year’s end, from a Kenyan e-bus company that
uses Chinese technology.
The International Energy Agency, in its 2024 conservative forecast scenario,
estimated that e-bus sales will account for a third of global bus sales by
2035, and a fifth of all buses in operation. As of 2023, the global stock of
e-buses numbered around 635,000."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
