India 50.000 bussen Tata

India on the way to a record 50,000 city bus tender

03 June 2022

In India the central government is planning tenders for a total of 50 thousand electric buses, as local media are reporting. Recent a tender for 5,450 e-buses by Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) is awarded to different bus manufacturers. Now the central government is thinking of purchasing no less then 50,000 ebuses.

The expectation is that the 50 thousand buses will be deployed over the next 5 to 7 years. Contrary to the last tenders the new announced tenders will fulfil also the demand from smaller cities across the country. The tenders will be published under the supervision of CESL. Especially state transport operators are encouraged to come up with orders. The idea is that the bigger the order will be, the lower the price. From the current 1.7 million buses in India, 1.4 million are government-owned. At the website ET Auto.com, Mahua Acharya, MD and CEO at CESL, states that in the fiscal 2022, around 30,000 buses have been bought within the

nation. He also mentions the fact that in India with the latest tender for 5,450 ebuses prices went down, a 57% decrease compared to diesel buses and 49% decrease compared to CNG buses. This latest 5,450 bus tender was granted to several manufacturers such as Tata Motors with a bottom bid on all 5 classes including 12-meter buses and 9-m buses. Also Olectra and Volvo Eicher get to provide buses. It appears the 50 thousand buses is only the beginning, as Acharya estimates that around 91,000 new buses are needed for cities with inhabitants between 2 and 4 million.