The penetration of electric buses is inching up gradually in the country and is expected to reach close to double-digit by the end of this fiscal supported by various government initiatives.

Most of the big cities in India are pushing towards electric buses as part of the overall green agenda. Also, despite higher capital costs, even post the subsidies on offer, lower operating costs result in lower TCO for e-buses, thus driving up their adoption

E-bus penetration in India has picked up over the past couple years, and the penetration stood at 5-6 per cent during the first half of this fiscal. It was about 7 per cent in FY23, according to rating agency ICRA. However, Vahan data indicate that the penetration of e-buses in the heavy passenger segment has touched 9 per cent for the calendar year 2023.

“With the government attempting to modernise the fleet with electric buses and total cost of owners works in favour of e-buses, the penetration of the same has been increasing steadily. School bus segment is yet to see the adoption of e-buses. However, the overall penetration will continue to increase going forward, said Srikumar Krishnamurthy, Senior Vice-President & Co-Group Head - Corporate Ratings, ICRA.

PMI Electro Mobility Solutions Pvt Ltd, a leading e-bus manufacturer, has already delivered more than India-built 1,200 units of e-buses that are running on the roads of 10 States in the country. It has an e-bus order book of more than 2,500 units and recently secured an investment of ₹250 crore from Piramal Alternatives to scale up e-bus operations.

Tata Motors has signed agreements with Delhi Transport Corporation and Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation for deployment of 1,500 and 921 e-buses respectively. It has also started supplying e-buses for Jammu and Srinagar Smart City projects. It will supply, maintain and operate 100 electric buses in Srinagar and 100 electric buses in Jammu for a period 12 years

Overall, the company deployed more than 400 electric buses during the first half of this fiscal. Till date, the company has supplied more than 1,000 electric buses across multiple cities in India. “Cumulatively, we have now crossed more than 97 million kilometers and I think in all the contracts we are delivering more than 95 per cent uptime and almost close to 100 per cent uptime towards the end of Q2,” Girish Wagh, Executive Director, Tata Motors Ltd said during the company’s Q2 FY24 earnings call.

Of the 7090 e-buses sanctioned under the FAME subsidy scheme as of October 30, 2023, only 2435 e-buses have hit the roads and the rest of the buses (4655 units) are yet to be deployed.

While FAME II subsidy scheme has been a big driver for mass adoption of e-buses in metros and larger cities, the recent announcement of Prime Minister’s e-Bus Sewa is expected accelerate adoption of e-buses in Tier-II and Tier III locations.

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