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

  • ITS solutions to keep truck traffic moving
    June 8, 2015
    David Crawford reviews freight management initiatives. Managing truck traffic to minimise its environmental impacts, without adversely impacting on its critical economic role, continues to drive ITS-based solutions in both urban and interurban contexts.
  • India's terrifying road fatality rate
    May 21, 2012
    The fatality rate from road accidents in India continues to be of major concern to the country’s Government, highway authorities and safety campaigners. A report from India’s National Crime Records Bureau has highlighted the scale of the problem. Called “Accidental Deaths in India", this official report reveals that reported road accidents caused on average 56 injuries/hour and 14 deaths/hour during 2009. The fatal accident rate also increased from the previous year according to the report, which says that
  • Alternative fuel buses gaining significant traction
    April 25, 2012
    According to a recent report from Pike Research, the trend toward cleaner transit buses will continue over the next several years, and by 2015 the cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts that alternative fuel vehicles will represent more than 50 per cent of the 64,000 total transit buses that will be delivered worldwide during that year, up from 28 per cent of total bus deliveries in 2010.
  • US shutdown: transport bore the brunt
    February 20, 2019
    The longest-ever shutdown in US government history may be over – but it has had an impact on transportation infrastructure, says Mary Scott Nabers of Strategic Partnerships The impact of the longest government shutdown in history has spread far beyond government workers and their families. It is difficult to find any business, school, hospital, city, county, college, university or local government organisation that has not suffered as a result of the shutdown. The negative impact on retail establishments