Energetica India Magazine nº88 March-April 2020

ELECTRIC VEHICLE Public Transport: The Future Belongs to Electric Buses in India Energetica India The market for electric buses in India is growing because of the increasing manufacturing of such vehicles in the country. Large automakers, including Tata Motors Limited, OlectraGreentech Limited, and Ashok Leyland Limited, are setting up electric bus manufacturing plants in India, with foreign direct investment allowed under the Make in India initiative. Buses are among the cheapest modes of mass transit; in most cities. India displays a high public dependence on buses for the daily commute, as not everyone can afford a taxi, and metro systems are present in only a handful of cities. Bus sales in the country are constantly rising, as with small towns witnessing rapid urbanization, users of public transport are increasing. With urbanization, which is often a result of industrialization, the air pollution levels also go up. It is primarily owing to this factor that the governments of various Indian States are promoting electric buses over diesel variants. Driven by such measures, research suggests that the Indian electric bus market is set to reach 7,187 unit sales by 2025. Initiatives taken by the govern- ments to promote electric vehicles include an investment of $1,460 million (INR 10,000 crore), of which $517.5 million (INR 3,545 crore) is for offering subsidies on 7,090 buses. Similarly, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs announced intentions to procure 26,000 alternative-fuel buses in November 2017. Apart from granting funds for alternative-fuel vehicle manufac- turing, the government is also tightening the screws around fossil fuel-driven vehicles. One of the ways in which it is being done is the planned implementation of Bharat Stage (BS) VI emission norms, directly after BS-IV, by 2020, which will render several non-compliant vehicle models, primarily those running on diesel, illegal. As all non-CNG buses run on diesel, the BS-VI implementation is predicted to strengthen the focus on electric buses. The market for electric buses in India is also growing because of the increasing manufacturing of such vehicles in the country. Large automakers, including Tata Motors Limited, OlectraGre- entech Limited, and Ashok Leyland Limited, are setting up electric bus manufacturing plants in India, with foreign direct investment allowed under the Make in India initiative. Domestic manufacturing of buses would radically bring down their pur- chase price, thereby allowing government agencies and private transit firms to procure them. Insights into the market segments Of the two types of vehicles in the market -- battery-electric buses (BEB) and hybrid electric buses (HEB) -- BEBs are predicted to be more popular among consumers during 2019- 2025. The reason for this is the higher subsidies available on their manufacturing and purchase, compared to HEBs, as the former type produces almost no carbon emissions. Considering this, automakers are increasingly adding BEBs to their portfo- lio, which is further expected to help in the Indian electric bus market growth. Based on length, the Indian electric bus market is categorized into electric buses of less than 10 meters and electric buses of more than 10 meters. Between these two, the less than 10 meters category recorded higher sales volume in the market, with more than 60% share in 2018. Length agnostic subsidy led to the preference for smaller size buses by State Road Transport Undertakings (STUs) in the country. Geographical growth and development of EV Buses in India Historically, the southern part of the country registered the highest bus sales, and the scenario is predicted to stay the same in the future. According to the latest research by P& S intelligence, bus sales are projected to grow the fastest in North 42 energetica INDIA- March-April_2020