Tender Cues ??E-Buses Will Cost 29 Per Cent Lesser Than Diesel Ones: CESL

Wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited, Convergence Energy Services Limited, on Tuesday revealed that while the company was discovering tenders for 6,465 Electric Buses it found that operational cost for electric buses were somewhere around 29 per cent less that diesel buses. CESL is exploring tenders for fulfilling the demand of Electric buses in six UTs/ States which includes Delhi, Telangana, Haryana, Surat (Gujarat), Kerala & Arunachal Pradesh.

According to the official statement issued by the company, “The lowest price discovered for a 12-meter bus (intra-city) was INR 54.3 per KM, & 12-meter bus (intercity) was INR 39.8 per KM.

For a 9-meter bus, the price discovered was INR 54.46 per KM and a 7-meter bus was IRN 61.92 per KM. The prices do not include a subsidy and are 29 per cent lower than what it costs to operate diesel buses, an official statement added.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of CESl, Mahua Acharya said, "This is a remarkable step in helping to transform our state transport authorities and build out a new market for electric mobility in India."

She also added that this project is a part of the National Electric Bus Project which aims to deploy 50,000 Electric buses on the roads of the country in the next few years. These prices on which CESL found the buses to be operational will help even the small cities to adopt electric buses.

This price discovery has cued toward a comparatively new type of business model of Electric Vehicle as a service. This model will make the transport more affordable both for the transport departments and the passengers.

The electric buses will be used for both inter and intra-city transport. Range of intra-city transport is declared 352 Km on single charge while there is no information for inter-city range.

Total value of the tender is more than 30, 800 Cr in INR. These buses will be running for twelve years and 5,718 million KM while saving 1,842 million litres of fossil fuels. Additionally, these buses will help in reducing tailpipe emissions of 4.62 million ton of CO2e which will act as a boon for climate change.

This tender, with Gross Cost Contract, states that the bidder must operate the buses under predefined conditions for 10-12 years. CESL was ordered by NITI Aayog for the implementing a national programme of 50,000 eBuses.