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

  • Nissan and Ecotricity call for signs to put EVs on the map
    October 23, 2015
    Nissan, manufacturer of the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle (EV), and Ecotricity, which operates one of Europe’s rapid charging network, the Electric Highway, have called on the UK government to introduce official road signage for the UK’s growing number of standard and rapid EV charging points. Despite there being more than 9,000 EV charging points nationwide, there is still no official, recognisable signage available to direct motorists to them. Nissan and Ecotricity claim the time is right for the ne
  • London's ultra-low emission zone expands to cover whole city
    August 29, 2023
    Public health measure's £12.50 daily charge is criticised as money-making exercise
  • New Haven shows small can be beautiful
    October 22, 2014
    Connecticut’s new administration is using smart policy and ITS solutions to bridge social divides. Andrew Bardin Williams investigates. With only 130,000 residents, New Haven can hardly be called a metropolis. Measuring less than 502km (18 square miles), the city is huddled against the coast, squeezed between two mountains (appropriately called East Rock and West Rock) that, at 111m and 213m (366ft and 700ft) respectively, can hardly be called mountains. The airport is small and has limited service, and th
  • Underinvestment in infrastructure threatens economic growth
    January 24, 2012
    The 2011 Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute highlights the dangers of continued underinvestment in transportation infrastructure but also offers some hope in terms of possible solutions