Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), in line with the country's goal of completely replacing gasoline- and diesel-powered public buses with electric ones in 2030, is implementing a program to boost development of electric public buses.

The program aims to reduce air pollution, hike energy-use efficiency and promote the local electric bus manufacturing sector, according to MOTC at a forum held recently on electric bus development.

The program will be implemented in three phases - the pilot period (2020-2022), promotion period (2023-2026) and popularization period (2027-2030), MOTC said.

MOTC said that in November 2020 offered a pilot project to select local electric bus makers for demonstration purposes, and Master Transportation Bus Manufacturing and RAC Electric Vehicles are the first two qualified makers. The pilot project also offers subsidies for vehicle purchases by bus service operators.

Based on MOTC's estimation, complete replacement of fossil-fuel public buses with electric ones by the end of 2030 will result in production totaling NT$170 billion (US$6.02 billion) for electric buses.

According to public bus operators, a diesel-powered bus costs NT$4-5 million currently, much lower than NT$10-12 million for an electric one, and the government incentives will increase bus companies' willingness to use electric vehicles.