Chile adopting greener BEB tech to transform public transport system

By adopting the battery-electric bus (BEB) technology, Chile is setting up an example for the developing world by transforming its public transport system into a cleaner and greener system. In a first of its kind in the Latin American region earlier this year, the country's capital city Santiago received 100 new battery-electric buses as part of an attempt to tackle the air pollution and revolutionize the nation's public transport system. The initiative was taken under the Clean Bus Project implemented by the World Bank and funded by the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) Support Family, a Bank executed climate trust fund that supports the NDC Partnership.

The project was implemented in five cities across the continent: São Paulo, Mexico City, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, all of whom are cities of member countries of the NDC Partnership. The project undertook a city-by-city assessment to compare the costs and greenhouse gas emissions of different technologies like diesel, compressed natural gas, battery-electric as well as hydrogen buses. After the analysis, battery-electric buses (BEBs) emerged as the most energy-efficient option. But at the same time, the adoption of BEB technology continues to be challenged by two factors: their carbon intensity and high upfront costs. However, the recent sharp drop in the cost of battery technology—the main cost component of an electric bus — as well as an increasing share of renewables in the grid, are helping to overcome these challenges. There other factors which influence the adoption of BEB technology like fuel subsidy, market competition, transport corridor characteristics, and the most important, political will. The analysis showed that among other things, low-interest rates and competitive tendering processes have helped Santiago take the lead in the use of BEBs.

Chile aims to increase the number of electric vehicles in the country tenfold by the year 2022 which will probably set it as a leader for developing countries in the field of clean mobility and will also help it achieve its NDC target of 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP by 2030.