Electric public transport push faces hurdles as sales decline

With just a fortnight left for FY25 to end, electric bus sales stood about 400 units less on-year

- Manas Pimpalkhare

India's electrification push in public transportation is slowing, with electric bus sales in FY25 set to show only a nominal increase compared with the year before.

Electric bus sales have failed to make significant inroads into the traditional diesel-powered bus market over the past few years.

With only a fortnight to the end of the financial year, electric bus sales stood at 3,124 units in FY25, about 400 units fewer than the previous fiscal, the government's Vahan portal data showed.

The data also showed that penetration of electric buses in FY25 was the lowest since FY22, with only 4.72% of all buses being electric, half FY22's 9.34%.

Penetration of electric vehicles refers to the share of electric vehicles sold and registered in a particular period, compared with the total vehicles sold and registered in the same period. In this case, penetration of electric buses is the number of electric buses out of all buses sold in a financial year.