Exclusive: How electric buses can reimagine the future of Indian public transport?

As India races ahead in championing the cause of sustainability, there lies a great opportunity to combat climate change in the country by targeting core areas like public transport. The growing popularity of electric buses (e-buses) amongst the travellers, governments and the industries is making them a dependable choice for India's drive towards a sustainable future. As compared to ICE, commonly diesel-run buses, the electric variants are a much more effective and viable solution for the intra-city segment to cater and benefit the common Indian commuter, state exchequers, and the environment at large. It is promising that the e-buses are receiving encouragement from policy and decision makers across India and also offers a great chance to modernize the public bus service in India.

​​E-buses: A great opportunity for clean, modern public transport

The switch to e-buses is extremely crucial for India to decarbonize public transport and cut reliance on fossil fuels.  The buses currently ferrying on Indian roads are mostly dependent on fossil fuels, and account for more than 10% of diesel consumption in the country as per reports. Buses in India are the most preferred and affordable means of travel. A majority of the workforce, students, and others depend on it for daily commute.  

As these buses are responsible for a large portion of pollutants, replacing them with electric variants can bring huge advantages. They are easy to run and maintain and come with low running costs. Electric buses can minimize urban pollution and offer noise-free roads.  

Furthermore, e-buses have drastically lower carbon footprint and they require much lower energy/km to operate. As compared to diesel variants, these buses have zero tailpipe emissions and offer comfortable smoke-free and smooth rides to passengers. In a recently conducted survey among e-bus commuters, 78% of respondents prefer to travel by e-bus because of less noise and vibrations.

​​Advantage India: Factors contributing to e-mobility growth

India has set a target to get 50% of its energy requirements​ from renewables by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2070.  Pushing e-mobility, it wants to achieve EV sales penetration—30% of private cars, 70% of commercial cars, 40% of buses and 80% of two and three-wheelers by 2030.Aligned with these goals, the Indian government is giving a huge support to electric mobility in the country with initiatives like FAME and PLI​,​ and the results are encouraging.  

​Moreover, ​​today, the country is ramping up its EV and battery manufacturing capabilities which will help in localisation and making economical products suitable for Indian needs. Technology advancements will soon be able to offer products with high range to cover long distances and make e-mobility more viable for users.  

​​Eliminating the existing bottlenecks

According to benchmarks set by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Indian metros require 60 buses per lakh population. Going by these numbers, the country is operating at less than one-fifth of the buses it needs and to adequately serve the users, it needs to add an additional 1, 45,000 buses.

While electric mobility can add great value to STUs, they currently lack the technical know-how, operational knowledge, skills to deploy, run and manage fleets of e-buses. Financing of e-buses is another impediment in EV adoption.  Additionally, funding gaps and inadequate budgets also hold back STUs to make direct purchases.  The e-bus ecosystem needs high capital investments in addition to subsidies by the government to drive the transition.

The success of e-buses in India is also dependent on domestic manufacturing capabilities which require a favourable industrial policy. The segment can contribute to huge revenue opportunities, employment generation, innovation and collaborative efforts from all stakeholders are required to transform the face of public mobility with e-buses in India.

This article is authored by Satish Jain, Chairman, PMI Electro Mobility. All views are personal.