The slump in battery prices and economies of scale in production are the major factors behind the growth of e-buses.
Amid the strategy of reducing carbon emissions in public transport in India, sales of electric buses are anticipated to be escalated by 75-80 percent year-on-year (YoY), backed by the government policies, incentives, and subsidies. A huge chunk of tenders in the country were awarded under various schemes such as FAME (1 and 2), the National Electric Bus Programme (NEBP) by CESL, and the PM-eBus Sewa Scheme.
The global analytics firm CRISIL mentioned that the government has played a crucial role along with the stakeholders in growing the sales of e-buses and other EVs. The Director at CRISIL Rating, Gautam Shahi said that the adoption of e-buses is moving towards the right direction, which is because of the fact that the requirements of the STUs and bus operators are well taken care of under the Gross Cost Contract (GCC) model. It reduces the risks among all the stakeholders.
The slump in battery prices and economies of scale in production are the major factors behind the growth of e-buses. These factors are highly expected to provide more cost-effective rentals per kilometer for state transport undertakings (STUs), further supporting adoption, reported by ET.
Pallavi Singh, Associate Director at Crisil Ratings, told ET, “Existing strong e-bus orderbook, along with the remaining orders of 7,800 buses to be awarded under the PM e-Bus Sewa Scheme 4 will give a fillip to the sector. The government is expected to further augment his scheme, which will continue to support growth of e-bus sales over this and next fiscal.”
The adoption of e-buses in the country is all set to augment at a rapid scale, which will ultimately contribute to both environment and financial benefits. According to the experts, the smart policies, subsidies, and investments are speculated to keep the growth race of EV going, spearheading the global value chain in the coming few years.
