Electric bus orders surge as truck cost data and policy deadlines reshape fleets

On 28 September, multiple Indian outlets reported that SWITCH Mobility had won an order for 840 electric buses from Antony Road Transport Solutions, to be deployed on Delhi public transit routes under the government's PM E-Drive scheme. Autocar Professional, Entrepreneur India, Autopunditz, Coach Builders India and 5dariyanews all carried the figure. The order lands as Indian operators and manufacturers push for scale in electric bus deployment.

The same week brought a separate signal from Europe. A total cost of ownership analysis by Transport & Environment, published by CleanTechnica on 28 September, found that in six of nine major EU truck markets, electric trucks are already the best financial choice today. Those six markets account for 46 percent of all new heavy trucks sold in the EU, the analysis says.

Numbers behind the fleet push

The T&E figures are specific. In the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, savings can reach €100,000, €85,000 and €69,000 respectively over five years, with electric trucks paying off after two years, according to the analysis. When operating a Chinese truck, which has a considerably lower price tag, five-year savings can reach €128,000 in the Netherlands. T&E attributes the trend to increased scale, lower truck prices driven by the EU's truck CO2 targets, and national incentives such as vehicle subsidies and lower road tolls. The group argues the cost gap is widening. With a new energy crisis looming over Europe, it says, electric trucks become the cheapest and safest investment for transport companies.

T&E modelling projects that by 2030, with existing policy measures continued and a limited set of new ones added, electric trucks will be cheaper to operate in all nine EU member states, even when today's purchase subsidies are phased out or reduced. It calls for maintaining the EU truck CO2 standards, including the -43 percent 2030 target, and for Italy, France, Spain and Poland to implement the Eurovignette Directive, exempting zero-emission trucks from road infrastructure charges at 100 percent until 2031 and 50 to 75 percent afterwards.

Charging policy is the other lever the analysis names. It says Sweden, France, Poland, Italy and Spain need to implement RED III for both public and private depot charging, to lower electricity costs where most trucks charge.

Policy audits and a naming shift

In the Philippines, an op-ed published by CleanTechnica on 29 September framed the upcoming 14th Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit, opening in October, as an operational audit of the Department of Energy's Comprehensive Roadmap for the Electric Vehicle Industry, known as CREVI, under the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act, Republic Act 11697. The roadmap requires 311,700 electric vehicles and 7,300 dedicated charging stations by 2028, heading toward 50 percent fleet electrification by 2040. The author, Raymond Tribdino, writes that the short-term target cannot be met through private passenger car sales alone, pointing to light commercial platforms including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, delivery vans and modernized electric public utility vehicles. Under the law, government agencies and commercial cargo operators must ensure electric vehicles make up at least five percent of their operational fleets.

Volkswagen, meanwhile, confirmed on 29 September that its new ID. Tiguan will premiere in early October and reach markets in the beginning of 2027, succeeding the ID.4 and ID.5. The company said the Tiguan and its sister model, the Tayron, exceeded one million deliveries in the past year, and that more than 950,000 ID.4 and ID.5 units have been delivered since 2021.

Tesla's own filing adds a different kind of number. The USPTO granted US 12,746,987 B1 on 29 September, a patent for an Electric Fan Car using four electric ducted fans in the rear diffuser, according to Electrek. Tesla filed it in January 2024, with a provisional application from 17 January 2023, and eight inventors are listed.