Skip to main content

Electric buses: more billion dollar orders

China will spend up to one trillion dollars on electric buses over the coming 15 years according to analysts IDTechEx. This will reduce the impact of over 22.5 trillion dollars from air pollution over that time, at least one percent of GDP. More insurrection will occur if corrective action is insufficient because hundreds of thousands are dying from traffic pollution and far more are suffering resultant serious disease. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), outdoor air pollution caused 3.7 m
August 3, 2015 Read time: 4 mins
China will spend up to one trillion dollars on electric buses over the coming 15 years according to analysts 6582 IDTechEx. This will reduce the impact of over 22.5 trillion dollars from air pollution over that time, at least one percent of GDP. More insurrection will occur if corrective action is insufficient because hundreds of thousands are dying from traffic pollution and far more are suffering resultant serious disease.
 
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), outdoor air pollution caused 3.7 million premature deaths in 2012, China having the largest share. Some 1.2 million premature deaths in the country could be attributed to the outdoor air quality in 2010, a loss of some 25 million healthy years according to the Global Burden of Disease Study, published by The Lancet. It also published that a surge in car use in South and East Asia killed 2.1 million people prematurely in 2010. The New York Times reports that "ambient particulate matter pollution" was the number four cause of death in China, behind dietary risks, high blood pressure and smoking.
 
According to WHO, road transport accounted for 50% of the cost of the health impacts of air pollution – both death and illness – in OECD countries in 2010 which was close to $1 trillion. In China pollution from traffic is probably also responsible for 50% of the deaths and injuries from air pollution. With the rapid growth of traffic in developing countries such as China and India, WHO finds that air pollution has outpaced the adoption of tighter vehicle emission standards.
 
The Chinese government is now spending billions of dollars to solve their trillion dollar problem. Many orders for pure electric buses at the US$0.5 billion level have been placed in the last year and XALT in the USA has received a US$1 billion order for advanced lithium-ion traction batteries for one bus manufacturer in China. See the new report from IDTechEx Research, Electric Buses 2015-2025.
 
Wisely, the Chinese government has banned two-stroke two-wheel vehicles, removed millions of the worst polluting cars and other vehicles from its roads and declared that taking the electric bus or train will be a major part of the answer. It does not see the river of 140 million electric bikes and scooters used to get to work in China as a primary part of the solution. They often flow against the direction of traffic and up over sidewalks causing accidents and extra congestion. Many Chinese cities have either banned or severely restricted e-bikes, the market has eased back and the number of manufacturers of them has collapsed from 3,000 to less than one thousand with almost all of those losing money in sharp contrast to the rapidly increasing number of companies making electric buses.
 
Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx says, “The Chinese government is right to prioritise electric buses and trains over e-bikes which have other problems too such as boosting the lead acid battery business with its bad record of pollution from lead smelting through to used bike batteries being thrown in the local stream. Control is a bit better with microEV cars and the regular electric cars tend to have lithium-ion batteries. However the buses are almost entirely on lithium-ion batteries and super-capacitors neither of which have the problems of lead.”
 
“Bus companies are the billion dollar story right now,” adds Harrop. ”Expect several orders of one billion dollars at a time for buses in China in the coming year or two. On our analysis, the market for electric buses over eight tonnes will be well over US$40 billion in only five years from now. We have the widest selection of new reports on electric vehicles land, water and airborne but the buses report is our best seller by far. That industry has lift off.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cost Benefit: the economic case for cycling
    August 20, 2019
    Cycling is good for us for any number of reasons. David Crawford finds that it is now possible to access basic, low-cost data which will help make the economic case for improving infrastructure Cycling is enjoying a favourable press the world over as a ‘good thing’ in the economic, environmental and social spheres. A recent study on the Value of Cycling from the UK’s University of Birmingham, for example, shows that cycle-friendly urban settings can deliver annualised transport infrastructural support co
  • NSC to prioritise VRU safety
    July 4, 2022
    Emphasis on pedestrians as US safety group admits: 'What we're doing isn't working'
  • Government ban on petrol and diesel cars ‘doesn’t go far enough’, says UK adviser
    August 7, 2017
    Writing in the Guardian newspaper, Professor Frank Kelly, chair of the UK Government’s Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, says fewer not cleaner vehicles are needed to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis, plus more cycling and walking and better transit systems. The Government recently released its Air Quality Plan, in which it announced that it will ban all petrol and diesel vehicles (including hybrids) from 2040, with only electric vehicles available after that.
  • Clean diesel buses to power Maryland’s transit future
    February 2, 2016
    The Maryland Transit Administration is now in line to receive almost US$100 million to invest in 172 advanced clean diesel buses after receiving approval by the state’s spending board. The Baltimore Business Journal reported the new clean diesel buses will replace older vehicles – some which have been service for 15 years. The Maryland decision mirrors other significant orders of clean diesel and diesel-electric hybrid buses by transit agencies in major communities like New York, San Fran