Modified e-buses for city, Centre considering cutting cost by 80%

Chennai: Concerned that many states have expressed reluctance to procure expensive e-buses as a part of the 'go-green' initiative, the Union ministry of road transport and highways is now working on a new design that is expected to cut down the cost by as much as 80%.
“At present, a single electric bus costs more than Rs 1.5 crore. We are working with the Centre on a model which would bring down the cost to under Rs 0.5 crore,” a senior official from the state transport department told TOI.

Tamil Nadu transport minister M R Vijayabaskar had earlier announced that 200 new electric buses would be procured for Chennai city and recently visited a fair organised by automobile manufacturers in New Delhi in this connection.

“Discussions were held with manufacturers and ministry officials. Procurement would begin only after the design is finalised,” the official added.

After a trial run was held in June last year, Tamil Nadu faced two major issues, relating to the overall cost and seating capacity.

At present, three lithium ion batteries are fitted to the bus. It takes six hours to recharge the batteries which can be installed only as a package.

Experts from the government sectors and local manufacturers are now working on two models. One involves battery-swapping while in the other, the battery would be recharged for three-five minutes after the bus has been driven for 30km-35 km.

The state government has expressed interest in the latter. “Charging stations would be set up in all the MTC depots. A team of technicians stationed at these stations would replace the exhausted batteries with readily available fully-charged batteries within a few minutes,” the transport department official added.

As far as seating capacity is concerned, the internal design needs to be modified to increase it from 30 to 45.