Abstract:

China has seen a remarkable increase in electric buses.Transitioning to electric buses will help China's commitment to reduce its climate intensity by 60-65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, and help address growing concerns about rising air pollution. Buses also offer a chance for China to capture a growing market. In that sense, China's experience is essentially a lesson in industrial policy—one that India and other rising economies facing similar challenges would do well to study: Identifying and prioritizing a single sector can be a sharp strategy for green growth.

To achieve full vehicle electrification by 2030, India needs to urgently develop a roadmap. China's progress on electric mobility could provide lessons for India: a strategy to promote electric mobility as a co-benefit of increasing jobs by tying it to an industrial policy, a program to study the roll out and develop standards for procurement, battery technology, and finally, coordination between national and sub-national governments to identify common goals.