As the majority in Indian cities use public transport, especially buses, the public-transport-centric e-mobility programme is greatly relevant to India’s decarbonization goal. Electric buses are a unique opportunity to decarbonize a sizeable share of daily commute in cities as well as reduce toxic exposure. While the current incentive programmes for electric vehicles have a priority focus on buses—and rightly so—there is considerable scope of further improvement in design of the incentive for effective deployment. Future reforms will have to enable a new ecosystem for e-buses that have bearing on strategies for procurement, deployment, service conditions, charging options, skilling and monitoring of service level to maximize ridership and emissions gains.
[2]