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

  • Countering congestion’s cost
    May 6, 2015
    A new report on the economic costs of traffic congestion predicts the problem will worsen significantly in future. Jon Masters reviews the figures and some suggested solutions. New figures on the rising economic and environmental costs of congestion have been published by the US traffic data specialist Inrix and the UK’s Centre for Economics & Business Research (Cebr). Their report finds the problem much bigger than previously thought.
  • Moscow summit urges transit change
    June 11, 2019
    Moscow summit urges transit change
  • Moscow summit urges transit change
    June 11, 2019
    International ITS experts flocked to Russia for a new conference on the challenges of urban transit. Eugene Gerden reports from Moscow The Leaders in Urban Transportation Summit is a new international conference organised by the Moscow Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development. Dedicated to the latest developments in the field of ITS in the city of Moscow, it took place in the Moskva-Citi Business Center in April – and the intention is to make it an annual event. Senior transport o
  • Expert calls for high-tech traffic control
    November 29, 2012
    A leading Chinese transportation expert has called for China to develop smart traffic technologies that are more customer-oriented, while boosting greener, safer and more efficient modern transportation in the country. "China's ITS applications should shift their focus to provide more solutions for public transportation in the next decade, and the industry should get a new stimulus by responding to the needs of the market," said Wang Xiaojing, chief engineer at the Research Institute of Highway under the Mi