China Adds A London Transport Sized Fleet Of Electric Buses Every Five Weeks

The growth in the number of electric buses in China is profoundly changing not just travel in the country, but impacting the oil industry as well. The scale of China’s adoption of the electric bus is staggering, with more than 9,500 vehicles added to the fleet every five weeks. China is already home to 99% of the world’s electric bus fleet and at the rest of the world is falling further behind.

The impact on the oil industry is immense. Estimates peg the reduced demand for oil as a result of the current fleet at more than the  annual demand from Greece. That’s only going to increase if China continues to grow its fleet at its current rate.

China’s adoption of the electric bus is being driven by its historic pollution problems, but the rest of the world needs to start following its lead. Buses produce significantly more emissions than cars, even if just for the fact that they do significantly higher mileage, so enforcing this change has a much higher impact on air quality than moving the same number of cars from petrol to electric power.