Kaohsiung City in first place for electric bus deployment
Kaohsiung City has the the largest proportion of electric buses in its public bus fleet accounting for 19.5% of the total, according to a Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) press release today, June 24.
The Kaohsiung City Government assisted bus operators to obtain subsidies from the national government in order to reduce sources of mobile pollution. There are currently 195 electric buses plying routes in the city. At 19.5% of the overall bus fleet, Kaohsiung City won first place in the MOTC demonstration electric bus subsidy program.
MOTC will subsidize a further 28 electric bus purchases, and along with 26 subsidized purchases awarded at the end of 2021, a total of 54 electric buses will be added to the fleet in 2022, ensuring that Kaohsiung City will maintain first place in the electric bus subsidy program with a total of 249 electric buses.
The MOTC Transportation Management Division said that in order to encourage operators to replace ICE buses with electric vehicles, a number of subsidy measures have been put in place, including electric bus travel incentives, mileage subsidies, and vehicle purchase subsidies. The subsidies have been introduced to improve the operational efficiency of electric buses, and improve air quality.
In line with the Executive Yuan’s policy of fully replacing ICE buses with electric vehicles nationwide by 2030, the Kaohsiung City Government will increase subsidies for electric buses this year. The operating loss subsidy and purchase subsidy for the purchase of locally produced electric vehicles will be increased to NT$1.5 million per vehicle. The Kaohsiung City Environmental protection Bureau will also provide subsidies under the Kaohsiung City Bus Service Upgrade and Air Quality Program. Operators using electric buses with the highest percentage of trips will receive a subsidy of NT$750,000 for a total of two years.
According to the MOTC bus routes in Kaohsiung City serviced by electric buses, include Green 1, Yellow 1, Yellow 2, Orange 8, Orange 10, Orange 16, Red 21, Red 22, Red 52, Red 57, and 50, 52, 53, 73, 81, 88.
Kaohsiung City began trialing electric buses in 2017, and the city government hopes to make the city an important global base for the manufacture of electric buses.
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