How Is KR 1.3 Tracking?
This KR focuses on two vehicle classes that draw relatively little attention despite their outsized emissions. While buses and commercial trucks represent only 10 percent of vehicles on the road, they generate 30 percent of the sector’s global greenhouse gases.
Calling for all new bus purchases to be electric by 2025 is aggressive but realistic. It’s already happening In Shenzhen, home to BYD, China’s electric bus leader. A population of 13 million rides a fleet of 100 percent e-buses and e-taxis and is closing in on 100 percent e-delivery vehicles.
Now that e-buses have already crossed the price parity barrier, they’re being widely embraced. Of all miles driven by buses, more than 40 percent are already electric.
Decision-makers around the globe must abandon diesel now and shift to fleets of electric municipal buses, school buses, and delivery vehicles.
It’s a stiffer challenge for most types of commercial trucks. They require more powerful and lighter-weight batteries—which don’t yet exist. Another future possibility: new trucks powered by hydrogen. The hard reality, however, is that trucks will be burning carbon for years to come. To reduce these emissions, they must either go further per gallon or use more sustainable fuels.
Data for KR 1.3 is sourced from BloombergNEF EV Outlook 2022, which updates annually for e-buses and sustainable trucks.