The expansion of electric bus fleets is being massively promoted by state subsidies in many parts of the world in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector and the increasing impact of air pollution on cities. While the European market has recently been dominated by smaller first movers such as VDL, Solaris or Bluebus, traditional European bus manufacturers such as Daimler, MAN, Scania or Volvo have now also entered the market and have captured market share from the first movers. In addition, the globally active Chinese manufacturers are stepping up their activities with production facilities, joint ventures and the establishment of a service network around the world. These are the findings of the consultancy SCI Verkehr in its latest study "Electric Buses - Global Market Trends".
 
The past years displayed a maturation of the European market for electric buses. While initially mostly smaller manufacturers such as Solaris from Poland, VDL from the Netherlands and Bluebus from France were responsible for the majority of deliveries, several traditional bus manufacturers have entered the market since 2018. Volvo already started the serial production of electric buses in 2017 while Daimler followed suit in 2018 and Scania in 2019/2020. The development is also visible in market shares of the manufacturers. Furthermore, the importance of Chinese manufacturers, especially BYD and Yutong, has also increased in Europe, which also results from regional partnerships such as with Alexander Dennis in the UK.

The Chinese market for electric buses again constituted over 95% of the global market. Over the next five years, China's share will change only slightly, as extensive subsidies are now being granted again for the purchase of hydrogen buses, which will replace hundreds of thousands of retired battery electric buses by 2025. Besides their domestic market, Chinese companies increasingly focus on entering foreign markets and recently gained substantial market shares in every world region. Further opportunities for expansion will arise in the near future in world regions such as the Middle East.  

The study also focuses on the dynamic development of newly emerging markets for electric buses, such as in South America or the CIS states. Furthermore, North America and India have developed very positively in recent years.

In concrete terms, this MultiClient Study includes:

• A look at the worldwide market for E-buses differentiated by region
• An analysis of the relevant market data including present and future market volumes
• Information concerning the installed fleet and future procurement potential until 2025
• An assessment of current developments and growth drivers of the worldwide E-bus markets in the individual regions
• An overview of regional production capacities and major bus manufacturers including an analysis of the market shares by region
• Factsheets for the largest E-bus manufacturers worldwide

SCI Verkehr GmbH, a consultancy specialising in bus and rail technology, analysed the current size, structure and players of the global markets for electric buses and developed forecasts for the next 5 years.


The MultiClient Study "Electric Buses - Global Market Trends 2021" is now available (in English) from SCI Verkehr GmbH (www.sci.de). Please also note our offer of the data appendix in Excel format, which is available for all study publications since the end of 2017.

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