E-Bus Market in India – Challenges and Opportunities

Published on : Monday 20-01-2020

• 58 Likes

Atul Chandel presents an overview of the electric bus scenario in India with the attendant challenges and opportunities.

Electric buses are gradually growing in India. According to Faster Adoption and Manufacture of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme in India, it is recorded that nearly 360 buses are bought in 11 cities. In addition to this, FAME II is expected to facilitate the purchase of 5,595 electric buses in 64 cities. This volume is changing every month. This should provide credence and promote the adoption of electric buses on a large scale. FAME I and FAME II have certainly spurred the interest in several global and Indian vehicle and component manufacturers, mounting up facilities in India. E-bus market in India presents its unique set of Challenges and Opportunities.

Purpose of E-bus in India
In particular, India is critically challenged by air pollution. Almost 14 cities from India top the global 20 most polluted cities which is a depressing declare for us Indians. This has alarmed the researchers who indeed had foreseen the threatening health hazards and they can turn into a gravely issue if measurements aren't taken anytime soon. With a growing population and urbanisation, this is expected to deteriorate and demands immediate attention. E-bus is one of the Electric Vehicle initiatives in India aimed to reduce the level of air quality index. This initiative will utilise the energy from a source that shall not deplete upon usage. India has got an inadequate bus fleet among the urban population.

Primary drawbacks
Unfortunately, India has only 1.2 buses per 1000 population whereas Russia has got 6.1 and 6.5 in South Africa and 8.6 in Thailand upon taking an equivalent amount of population into consideration. This gives rise to increased sales among two, three and four-wheelers which in turn skyrocket vehicular emissions.

Why seize this moment?
This shall be discerned as an opportunity to induct electric buses to expand the fleet strength besides providing a clean, safe and pollution-free transport system.

With adequate incentives, connectivity and a desire to fix health issues, electric buses will prompt people to utilise public transport. Apart from lowering the emission, it would also help to let the dependence of imported oil down. The Indian E-bus market should be able to address the application requirements, for instance, withstanding higher ambient temperature, climatic conditions, traffic congestions, road conditions, etc., well, besides the fact that it must meet end customer's expectations – range vs price, charging infrastructure, reliability, long term service support, battery replacement cost and total cost of operation. Constant improvements in battery quality and energy density will help to focus on three factors – improve range, reduce cost and foster wider adoption.

Assaying the issue
As Indian cities have already started implementing the electric buses continually at an increasing rate, they'll have to be aware of technology shifts and changes that come along. Below are the few points to consider.

a) Training: The workshop professionals must be trained in a varied sector that includes maintenance, diagnostics, safety issues, do's and don’ts and charging infrastructure. Drivers are the most crucial fragments of this transition and thy must need an ample amount of training to ensure they're comfortable and confident enough to dive the electric buses. Driving nuances have to be shared which could help enhance battery efficiency. 

b) Service support and spares: Indian buses are operated for a minimum of 8 to 10 years. Hence it’s important to ensure the availability of spares and support locally, over the lifespan of a bus. The spare parts' pricing range should meet an operator’s expectation, else the operator will get second thoughts for his budget might not afford this. Hence service support will hugely impact the automotive consumers.

c) Infrastructure support: Establishing a proper depot, charging infrastructure, grid support, extra charging points are some of the prerequisites before the induction of electric buses. Universal chargers and standardisation of charging points are essential to allow different makes of the buses to utilise the same spot.

Prime focus
As we increase the investments to bring in more electric buses, it’s important to keep an eye on our prime and end objective:
1. To reduce vehicle emissions. 
2. To reduce the import cost of oil.
3. To increase the proportion of buses in the Urban division.

The deployment of electric buses shall set off the people to hop into public transport for the comfort and cost-effective method of transportation it provides. This would require meticulously sorted route planning, maintaining optimum bus frequency, providing last-mile connectivity, integration with metros and also sensitising commuters to adopt public transport. These measures, when taken together along with increasing adoption of electric buses, would definitely help reduce pollution.

Electric buses, well to generalise, electric vehicles are expected to lessen our diesel consumption and import cost. However, lithium-ion batteries which account for approximately 50% of the electric bus cost, are imported and not manufactured in the country. This is the challenging factor India is destined to face. India does not have the required minerals for complete localisation. 

Closure points on E-bus
Hence there is a risk of battery import replacing fuel import. Battery cost is expected to drop significantly, making the electric bus cheaper and suitable for large scale adoption. However, these assumptions might go wrong and India must find its solution upon investing largely for the research and development department. The Indian EV sector is still in the early stages of blooming in mass-producing E-buses but is making steady progress. In spite of the challenges, the future holds great opportunities to transfigure urban mobility and position of Indian OEMs to successfully established solution providers in the global markets.

Indian government has revealed numerous initiatives to encourage the implementation of electric buses to reduce vehicle emissions. To uplift this concept of commuting in electric vehicles, the Indian government has slashed the Goods and Services Tax from 12% to 5% which is quite a great deal for the Indian consumers. This initiative is aimed to promote electric vehicles, reduce the air quality index and to cut off the dependence of fossil fuels.

Atul Chandel is Director, Autobei Consulting Group and an advisor for 3 Electric Vehicle OEMs. Atul joined ACG in October 2013 as Vice President, Sales and Marketing, and was appointed Director in January 2015. In his previous roles he was Marketing Head at Kamaz Vectra Motors, Bangalore and before that was part of International Management at MAN Truck & Bus AG, Germany. He was instrumental in establishing the 100% subsidiary of MAN Truck & Bus AG in Mumbai in 2008.