Electric Buses Are Hurting the Oil Industry

[FarCenter]

Electric buses were seen as a joke at an industry conference in Belgium seven years ago when the Chinese manufacturer BYD Co. showed an early model.

“Everyone was laughing at BYD for making a toy,” recalled Isbrand Ho, the Shenzhen-based company’s managing director in Europe. “And look now. Everyone has one.”

Suddenly, buses with battery-powered motors are a serious matter with the potential to revolutionize city transport—and add to the forces reshaping the energy industry. With China leading the way, making the traditional smog-belching diesel behemoth run on electricity is starting to eat away at fossil fuel demand.

The numbers are staggering. China had about 99 percent of the 385,000 electric buses on the roads worldwide in 2017, accounting for 17 percent of the country’s entire fleet. Every five weeks, Chinese cities add 9,500 of the zero-emissions transporters—the equivalent of London’s entire working fleet, according Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

All this is starting to make an observable reduction in fuel demand. And because they consume 30 times more fuel than average sized cars, their impact on energy use so far has become much greater than the than the passenger sedans produced companies from Tesla Inc. to Toyota Motor Corp.

For every 1,000 battery-powered buses on the road, about 500 barrels a day of diesel fuel will be displaced from the market, according to BNEF calculations. This year, the volume of fuel buses take off the market may rise 37 percent to 279,000 barrels a day, about as much oil as Greece consumes, according to BNEF.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/electric-buses-are-hurting-the-oil-industry

The weight of the battery pack is much less important for buses. Buses also run a predictable number of miles per day, while daily car mileage is much more variable.

[shanny]

1. Sad! for the oil industry.

Great for everyone else.

Also sad for American know-how and can-do spirit, which seems to have disappeared from the zeitgeist. Has anyone else noticed that now all political discussions--on both sides of the aisle--focus on what we can't do / can't afford?

[Jokerman]

2. Great!

Our local service has been running them for several years:

https://www.indygo.net/electric/

I've been lucky enough to ride one a few times and they are quiet and comfortable.

[FarCenter]

3. Interesting - It looks like Gillig is partnering with Cummins on electric power now

GILLIG And Cummins Announce Electrified Power Partnership At APTA

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gillig-and-cummins-announce-electrified-power-partnership-at-apta-300532667.html