Abstract:

In recent times, State Road Transport Undertakings (SRTUs) in major Indian cities are contemplating to introduce e-buses in their vehicle fleets. In response to DHI’s Expression of Interest(EoI) dated 31st October 2017 which invited proposals from million-plus cities and special category states, 44 cities submitted 47 proposals for multi-modal electric public transport, out of which 11 cities were selected for pilot projects. The government has sanctioned a total of 390 buses wherein Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore and Kolkata will be given subsidy for 40 buses each, while Jammu and Guwahati will get subsidy for 15 buses each (UITP, 2018). As the public bus fleets in the cities are embarking on the electric journey, there is very little space to make errors as it may adversely impact the public transport system of the city. Rolling out e-buses may pose as a double-edged sword to the bus service providers. Deployment of charging stations in a meticulous way is critical for a bus service provider to achieve smooth operation of its e-bus fleet and make the corresponding electrification investment worthwhile. 

Currently, the bus service providers are not familiar of the e-bus operation and the charging technologies and do not have the necessary technical and commercial know-how to manage e-bus fleets, especially to plan and set up charging infrastructure. Also, the OEMs or third-party operators in India are on a learning curve – they are yet to garner sufficient hands-on experience in supporting bus service providers to operate fully electric bus fleets.

This report is a comprehensive research on the current e-bus market and study of the operation of a typical intra-city bus fleet in an Indian city to facilitate the transition of the public bus mobility in a Tier-I or Tier-II city in India to a fully electric format by shedding interesting insights into the e-bus and charging technology market and providing definitive guidance to set up charging infrastructure for an intra-city e-bus fleet. This is arguably the most detailed study undertaken on e-bus transport in the Indian context.