Exploring the Role of Private Sector as a catalyst for Accelerating transition to E-Bus in India.

In Association with Council of Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) and Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) India.
Funded by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF)
Knowledge and Technical partners – RITES Ltd. and Indian Institute of technology (IIT) Delhi.
Year 2022- 2023

Project Description:

This study was undertaken as a joint effort by S G Architects (SGA), and knowledge partners for the study: Council of Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) and Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) India to accelerate electrification of private buses operating under State Transport Undertakings (STUs) and State Transport Authority (STA) permits on non-urban routes and remove any doubts on their electrification viability. This study was undertaken in five states in India, including Kerala, Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu (TN) and Uttar Pradesh (UP) to identify bottlenecks in nor urban e-bus operations by private operators and develop a sustainable business model of electric bus operation in twenty- seven (27) non- urban bus routes and to provide action plan for OEMs and launch pilot for five bus routes.

The study was undertaken in three stages. The first stage documented the findings from interactions with operators, to identify the gaps and bottlenecks in electrification of stage-carriage buses on non-urban routes, especially by private operators. The second stage involved a deep dive into identifying viability gap for operating electric buses (e-buses) on such routes by the operators. This involved data collection on specific routes, developing business models for different electric bus models on such routes and undertaking pilots (on select routes) and deriving findings on the performance of buses. The third stage involved consolidating these findings to identify policy gaps and develop policy recommendations that can help achieve the aim of this study. Throughout the tenure of the project, following tasks were undertaken:

1. Investigating reasons for lack of interest in electrification of non-urban public bus operations and identification of bottlenecks and solutions to e-bus in five States to establish barriers in electrification of non-urban bus services by operators along with broad understanding of strategies and providing solutions to address the same.
2. Identification of multiple potential routes (27 in total) for electrification (in the selected geographies pan India) in consultation with the operators and other stakeholders and producing a viable business model for electric bus operations on the same.
3. Operating pilot electric bus services on five routes and gathering learnings from the same for further scaling in the same and other geographies.
4. Producing a policy framework and action plan for stakeholders and decision makers, to bring about necessary change in the eco-system to accelerate electrification of public bus services in the country.
5. Dissemination of the findings and learnings achieved from the study through, outreach, capacity building and advocacy at national and state level.

The findings and outcomes gained from the study is complied and presented in five (5) different reports which can be accessed as downloadable links.