The National Bus Company remains confident it can transition to a fully electric fleet by 2027, pointing to major operating cost savings and new government investment in buses rather than terminals. Minister of Transport, Dr. Louis Zabaneh today explained that Cabinet has approved a plan to direct funds to the acquisition of about twenty-four electric buses and charging stations nationwide. He further explained that this move builds on data-collected from a UNDP and EU-funded pilot project.
Louis Zabaneh
Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Transport
“There was a report that was shared with the public. It shows that the energy cost for an electric bus is only twenty-two percent the cost of a diesel bus. By the time we are now working on about twenty point nine million, the value of the terminals would have been put into the company. It’s shareholding from the government. So instead of putting that in as terminals, we will put the equivalent of about twenty-four electric buses plus charging stations. We’ve been working vigorously for a whole year with our friends in Taiwan. So we’re looking as much as possible to receive that in terms of our grant. So that comes into the NBC. Because of the delay now with that switch, we were aiming for September to start getting the first ones. It will look more like January. And so that’s the first, that’s like a third of the seventy-five buses that the NBC, the seventy-five that we have shared the public that will be needed. So the economics is clear. And so now we will be able to have that as government’s input into the company. And with the profitability of the company, the company goes out and raises the funds for the other fifty buses. We have a vigorous discussion with the EU as well, who have manufacturers in Europe.”
Zabaneh says the National Bus Company has a list of about thirty-eight busses that will be actioned off and sold.
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