"China has really been at the forefront of success in conversion of all vehicles to electric vehicles, especially buses," says Heather Thompson, chief executive officer of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), a non-profit focusing on sustainable transport solutions. The NGO now estimates that if China follows through on its stated decarbonisation policies, its road transport emissions will peak before 2030.Ĭhina is also home to some of the world's biggest electric bus manufacturers, such as Yutong, which has been raking up orders across China, Europe and Latin America. In 2015, 78% of Chinese urban buses still used diesel or gas, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI). The speed of this transition was remarkable. In 2022, around 84% of the new energy bus fleet was pure electric. At the end of 2022, China's Ministry of Transport announced that more than three-quarters (77% or 542,600) of all urban buses in the country were "new energy vehicles", a term used by the Chinese government to include pure electric, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell vehicles powered by alternative fuels such as hydrogen and methanol. As they shuttle back and forth along their bustling daily routes, these vehicles are having a profound influence on not just China's rapid EV transition, but the world's.Īfter around two decades of government support, China now boasts the world's largest market for e-buses, making up more than 95% of global stock. These sleek buses are now ubiquitous across much of China, but their status as a green transport icon was not always assured. They also drive smoothly, particularly when they start and stop. Compared to the once ubiquitous diesel-fuelled buses, which made loud "vroom-vroom" engine sounds and belched out black smoke from their tailpipes, the e-buses dominating Shanghai's streets today are quiet, smoke-free and stylish to look at. These sleek and modern electric buses, powered by lithium batteries not wires, were rolled out in Shanghai in their thousands beginning in 2014. They use poles on their roofs to receive electricity from wires overhead and have kept the route running in this way for nearly a century.īut while the historic trolleybuses are a reminder of Europe's past technological innovation, the new buses swooshing alongside them are symbols of China's contemporary net-zero ambition. The first is a fleet of blue trolleybuses that serve bus route number 20, a line set up by a British-run transport company in 1928. There are two distinctive types of electric buses making their way along Nanjing Xi Lu, one of Shanghai's busiest roads.
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