Shenzhen's Buses Will All Be Electric By Yearend

By Bailey Hu, November 28, 2017

In about a month, Shenzhen will become the first city in the world to have an 100 percent electric bus fleet.

According to Post Magazine, it already has over 14,000 battery-powered buses, with only 'several hundred' still running on diesel. By the end of 2017, the latter will all have been switched out for environmentally-friendly vehicles.

Of Shenzhen's existing electric buses, 80 percent were produced by local company BYD, which has its headquarters in the city. In 2016 BYD became the world's biggest electric vehicle maker, beating out Tesla for the top spot. Other electric buses in Shenzhen's fleet were also made by Chinese companies.

Shenzhen's soon-to-be record-making fleet is a result of the nationwide push to go electric. In 2015, the government initiative "Made in China 2025" singled out electric vehicles, among other sectors, as a national priority.

The same year, Shenzhen's Communist Party Chief, Ma Xingrui, mandated for Shenzhen's buses to be 100 percent electric in just three years.

Generous national and local government subsidies helped local bus operators make the switch, and also helped set up a network of charging stations and piles around Shenzhen.

Government funding has gone down since then, partly due to a 2016 case in which five companies fraudulently collected over RMB1 billion in subsidies. Still, Shenzhen (and Beijing) has already set another ambitious goal – an all-electric taxi fleet by 2020.

Whether or not the deadline is met, Shenzhen's future is looking green.

[Cover image via nandudu.com]