Electric buses (e-buses) offer a more efficient, cleaner, and quieter alternative to the diesel buses currently run in Indian cities. The country has a target of deploying 5,595 e-buses by 2024 (sanctioned under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles scheme [FAME]). According to a 2020 report by the Department of Heavy Industry (GoI) and Rocky Mountain Institute, these buses will, over their lifetime, travel almost three billion kilometres without tailpipe emissions, saving around 12 lakh tons of GHG emissions and 55 lakh barrels of imported fuel.
However, though the benefits are immense, achieving this won’t be easy as it involves a major transition, given that the operations of e-buses are quite different from those of their diesel-based counterparts.
