#25 Electric Buses
A more accessible, scalable and sustainable alternative to electric cars
Read time: 4 minutes
In this week’s issue you will learn about the importance of electrifying this apparently insignificant yet very relevant transport sector: Electric Buses aka eBuses
“The value proposition for electrification is even better for municipal vehicles than cars. Urban buses are the strongest example, based on miles and how inefficient the diesel models are“ - Ryan Popple (former Proterra CEO)
Top Electric Buses News 🗞️
EU eBuses: For the first time ever, in Q1 2023, sales of electric buses in the EU+UK were higher than those of any other type of bus.
Chinese subsidies: After a decade of support to EV manufacturers, the Chinese government will cut subsidies. Tax incentives will remain and even increase. Sales of EVs are shifting from policy-driven to market-driven.
US school buses: The US is electrifying its biggest transportation fleet: school buses. They just reached 1% of the total fleet being electric.
Let’s dive in 🧠
The transportation sector overall is responsible for about 16% of global CO2 equivalent emissions. Out of that cars, SUVs and motorcycles are responsible for almost 50%!
So why not just electrify all of those?
We are doing it but, at the current rate it will be hard to access enough supply of lithium for that many cars.
And even then, public transportation options are just much more sustainable for the environment because their emissions are spread out over a long period of time and split among the thousands of passengers that use them every day.
Electric cars have no tailpipe emissions but their manufacturing emissions are really high and if the electricity they use comes from fossil fuels, they can be very dirty.
Electrifying cars is not enough. We can have a much larger impact by electrifying buses and making them of better quality. This will get cars out of the road and will allow those who can’t afford to buy a car to be part of the energy transition.
Let’s use lithium wisely…
It takes almost 22x more lithium to build 40 electric SUVs than one bus that can move 40 people. Instead of those 40 SUVs, 960 kg of lithium could be used to build 22 electric buses that can move 880 people.
Does it make economical sense to switch to eBuses?
Yes. And here’s what matters to the municipal transportation officials, aka the clients…
Over a typical 12 year life cycle, an electric bus saves between $73000 and $173000 over a diesel bus. That’s because eBuses have much lower maintenance costs since they have fewer parts and they also save a lot on fuel costs.
The only case in which it would not make economic or sustainability sense is if the fleet of diesel buses was just bought. In that case the best option might be to retrofit them, swap the diesel engine for an electric one.
And btw, by electrifying all buses we will also get rid of those exhaust fumes that pollute our cities and kill over 4 million people each year according to the WHO.
Electric buses make economic and environmental sense and they have already spread all over China…
So why are they expanding so slowly all across the world?
Challenges
Operations: In some regions there is not enough infrastructure to charge the buses appropriately and the distances may be too big for the buses’ range with one charge.
Cost: Even though in the long-term it’s more economic to have a fleet of electric buses, some companies just don’t want to pay so much upfront, especially when their diesel fleets are still quite new. That’s why China’s Government support was key to promote their expansion.
Legislation: Although it’s changing, in many places there’s a lack of political leadership and public policy that promotes and supports the electrification of public transport fleets.
Top Electric Bus Startups 💰
Kleanbus🇬🇧: They convert legacy diesel buses to electric ones. This is very smart and sustainable since they target fleets of buses that are 5-10 years old. It would make no sense to just throw away those relatively new buses and get electric ones, it’s better to retrofit them.
Fresh Bus🇮🇳 & Roam🇰🇪: Fresh Bus is developing and leading the market for eBuses in India and Roam is doing the same but in Africa.
Ember🇬🇧: They run the highest mileage EV's in the world and their full stack platform powers the operations, the charging infrastructure, and the entire customer experience for these intercity buses.
Besides these startups, you should also know about BYD🇨🇳 and Yutong🇨🇳 the largest eBus manufacturers in the world and Proterra🇺🇸, the leader in the US market.
❗Extreme knowledge area❗
China’s eBus story: When Shenzhen became the first city in the world to have 100% eBuses, China owned about 99% of the world's 385,000 existing electric buses. A great example of how Governmental support can lead to fast, large-scale decarbonization.
eBus market dive: VC fund Pale Blue Dot created this awesome overview of the electric bus market and they provide access to their public research at the top of the article.
That’s it for today, 1 climate tech topic in under 5 minutes.
Next week… Insulation! 🤯
If you enjoyed today’s issue, the best compliment you could pay me would be to share it with one person who you think would benefit from it :)