Electric Buses: Benefits Outweigh Costs

This fact sheet, based on interviews with EESI staff, examines the transition from diesel to battery-powered electric buses (BEBs), highlighting their environmental and health benefits, economic trade-offs, and the current state of deployment in the United States and globally.

• While battery-powered electric buses (BEBs) have higher initial purchase prices than diesel buses, they offer lower long-term operating and maintenance costs. In 2015, a 40-foot diesel bus cost approximately $445,000 compared to $770,000 for a BEB. However, powering vehicles with electricity is about 2.5 times cheaper than using diesel, and the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory found BEB fuel economy to be five times higher than that of diesel buses on equivalent routes.
• Global BEB deployment is heavily concentrated in China, which hosts 99 percent of the estimated 386,000 electric buses worldwide. In contrast, the United States accounts for less than 0.1 percent of the global total, with only 350 buses. Projections from Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggest a rapid shift, estimating that 84 percent of new municipal buses sold globally will be electric by 2030 and 80 percent of the world's city bus fleet will be electric by 2040.
• Transitioning to BEBs provides significant public health benefits, particularly for children and vulnerable populations in urban areas, by eliminating tailpipe pollution. Diesel exhaust is a known carcinogen linked to respiratory diseases like asthma, higher cancer rates, and mortality. Children are especially at risk because their respiratory systems are still developing and they inhale more air per pound of body weight than adults.
• Various U.S. federal and state funding mechanisms are supporting the transition to low- or no-emissions buses. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) awarded $264 million in grants to 139 projects under its Buses and Bus Facilities Infrastructure Investment Program on April 5, 2018, and made an additional $84.45 million available for the "Low-No" Vehicle Program on April 23, 2018. In California, the Air Resources Board approved $208 million and the California Energy Commission allocated $75 million for low- and zero-emissions bus and truck fleets.
• Technical challenges and performance issues have been reported with certain BEB models. Specifically, buses produced by Byd used by agencies in California, Colorado, and New Mexico reportedly suffered from battery depletion before the advertised range, stalling, starting problems, and difficulty climbing hills.

APA

Nunno, R. (2018). Electric Buses: Benefits Outweigh Costs. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-electric-buses-benefits-outweigh-costs

Chicago

Nunno, Richard. Electric Buses: Benefits Outweigh Costs. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2018. https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-electric-buses-benefits-outweigh-costs.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nunno |first1=Richard |title=Electric Buses: Benefits Outweigh Costs |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=26 October 2018 |url=https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-electric-buses-benefits-outweigh-costs |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nunno2018electric, author = {Nunno, Richard}, title = {{Electric Buses: Benefits Outweigh Costs}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2018}, month = oct, url = {https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-electric-buses-benefits-outweigh-costs}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }