Santiago, Chile

Since mid-December, 100 electric buses manufactured by China’s BYD have been deployed in Santiago, making the Chilean capital the owner of the largest electric fleet in Latin America and the second largest of any city in the world outside China.

Transantiago, Santiago’s Bus Rapid Transport system (BRT) will add a further 100 made by Yutong that arrived in Chile in mid-January. They are the driving force behind Santiago’s quest to make public transport greener in a city where pollution and air quality have become issues of high concern for the public. The city will also add another 490 buses powered by diesel engines, although they will be Euro VI standard, a cleaner technology.

Transantiago, which transports 60% of Santiago's population, solved some of the problems that have come up in other countries attempts to introduce electric buses. The deal was financed by the government of Sebastián Piñera, who personally presented the first buses in December and who made 'electromobility' into one of the central pillars of his 2018-2022 Energy Roadmap. Among other commitments, the plan promised to multiply the number of electric vehicles operating by ten within three years.

Italian electricity giant Enel is working closely with bus operators to install 100 charging points in the city.

"The purchase of electric buses was very much influenced by the willingness of the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications to have this fleet. Unlike previous cases, it was the Ministry itself that bought the buses through direct deals, without bidding. This, coupled with Enel's support, especially in terms of providing charging infrastructure, made the process much faster," explains Franco Basso, director of the Center for Innovation in Transport and Logistics at Diego Portales University.

"The case of Santiago is also very interesting because there is an alliance between private operators, manufacturers and energy distributors," says Darío Hidalgo, a researcher at the World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.

Medellín and Cali, Colombia

Late last year, Medellín announced that Chinese company BYD had won the contract to bring 64 electric buses to Colombia.

With the incorporation of these vehicles to the Metroplús system in August, Colombia’s second city will also become the owner of the second largest electric fleet in the Latin America region after Santiago. The purchase, 100% funded by the local government, was decided after a tender in which two others bidders also offered to supply Chinese-made Yutong and Zhongtong buses.

Medellín will be followed closely by Cali, which announced a few weeks previously its eventual goal is to have 125 electric buses in the MIO transport system. The first batch of 26 vehicles, manufactured by the Chinese company Sunwin Bus Corporation, will arrive in May to the third-largest Colombian city.

Medellín and Cali will therefore become the first cities to advance in the goal set by Colombia in commitments under the Paris Agreement to replace 75% of public buses in seven cities with zero emission vehicles by 2040.

Electric technology has an additional attraction for Colombia. Given that 70% of electricity comes from hydroelectric plants, the country has a much cleaner energy matrix in terms of new emissions than most others and, therefore, these buses will contribute to an even greener energy scheme.

One reason why both cities managed to introduce electric buses before Bogota is that China already has a solid market for ordinary electric buses but has so far failed to produce reliable articulated and double-articulated buses, as Bogota’s Transmilenio system requires.