On the afternoon of August 15, 2019, the China Clean Transportation Partnership (CCTP) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) jointly held the 7th thematical workshop in Beijing – "Optimizing E-Bus Promotion and Operation and Coordinated Regional Development". About 40 experts, scholars and industry practitioners from 20 institutions participated in the workshop and discussed the problems and solutions of electric bus and coordinated regional development.

Benefiting from the government subsidy policies and the demand of bus industry in cities, China's new energy bus ownership has grown rapidly. By the end of 2018, the total number of energy-saving and new-energy buses in China exceeded 340,000, accounting for 50.7% of the total number of public transport vehicles, going beyond the "13th Five-Year Plan" target. Among the energy-saving and new energy buses, pure electric buses take the lead, being the driving force in the promotion of new energy buses. However, the promotion of new energy buses in China is still unbalanced. Some large cities are the first to achieve bus electrification, while even in many central cities such as Lanzhou and Chongqing, the penetration rate of pure electric buses is less than 10%, staying in the initial stage of "groping". In addition, the third- and fourth-tier cities, local counties, as well as northwest, northeast, and southwest regions are sensitive to the car purchase cost, therefore, there is still a long time for pure electric buses to be extended to these cities. After the abolishment of national purchase subsidy, how should the national and local formulate new energy bus promotion policies at the same time respect the economic conditions, geographical environment and resource advantages of different regions? Although the new energy bus promotion has made great achievements, there are many problems in its operation, including the inefficient usage of buses and low operating efficiency. How can new energy buses operate more efficiently? How does big data support the promotion of new energy buses?

The 7th CCTP Workshop

【Discussion】

This workshop was hosted by Mr. Liu Daizong, Director of the Sustainable City Project of the World Resources Institute. Mr. Liu opened the session with the purpose and reasons of this topic. The development of electric buses will be extremely challenging in the next few years. The purchase subsidy will be cancelled at the end of 2020. Although the operation subsidies will continue, there are still large uncertainties in the schemes, and there are very distinct regional discrepancies in the operation of electric buses. Therefore, the seminar is focused on how can the pure electric bus achieve coordinated and efficient regional development and optimized operations in the next phase.

Before the discussion, Ms. Li Xiangyi and Ms. Xue Lulu, researchers of the World Resources Institute, gave a leading speech on "International Pure Electric Bus Promotion Cases and Opportunities in China" and "Pure Electric Bus Promotion and Operation Status and Challenges in China". Ms. Li found that the development of global electric bus is unevenly distributed, with the center in China, the United States and Europe. Latin America and India have begun to grow in the past two years, but China is still in an absolute leading position in terms of quantity, so China's experience is referable to the global promotion of new energy vehicles. In terms of domestic electric buses, Ms. Xue points out that China's new energy bus will reach the watershed of promotion in 2020 with orientation diverting from policy to market. With the withdrawal of the purchase subsidy, the local subsidy will turn to the piles, no longer cars. And with the gradual decline of operational subsidies, different market players such as vehicle manufacturers, bus operators and charging service providers will encounter different opportunities and challenges. Besides, although China ranks as the first in terms of the quantity of pure electric bus, the operating efficiency of China's pure electric buses still remains at a low level, which needs to be improved from vehicle performance and charging piles.

In the discussion session, Mr. Wang Hao, Division Chief of the Bus Division, Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport; Mr. Liu Rongxian, Engineer of the China Academy of Transportation Sciences; Professor Liu Peng, School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology; Dr. Fang Haifeng, Deputy Director of the Research Department, China Automotive Technology and Research Center; Ms. Liu Xuejie, Deputy Director of the Transportation Planning Institute, Beijing Transport Institute; Mr. Yang Jie, Project Manager of Data Research Department, Shanghai Electric Vehicle Public Data Collecting, Monitoring and Research Center; Mr. Zhou Weimin, Senior Transportation Specialist of World Bank; Mr. Zhang Qingwei, Overall Solution Planning Manager of Yutong Bus; Mr. Li Biao, Chairman of BAIC TELD (Beijing) Amperex Technology Co., Ltd; Mr. Mu Qiyong, General Manager of Potevio New Energy, Beijing; Mr. Liao Tao, Deputy Manager of Technology and Environment Protection Department of Chongqing Public Transport; Ms. Qin Jing, from Jinan Bus Group, Mr. Tang Zhen, Minister of Technical Information Department of Guiyang Public Transport and other guests elaborated views and provided advice from their perspectives. They discussed and raised suggestions for the problems and challenges confronted by pure electric bus operations, and how big data supports the promotion of new energy buses. Novel sessions of field investigations and role exchange game for government representatives, enterprise representatives and car business representatives to express appeals by putting themselves in each other’s shoes add more encounters of opinions and energy into the discussion. Representatives from Guiyang Municipal Commission of Transport, GIZ, Natural Resources Defense Council and China EV 100 attended the discussion.

Ms. Kang Liping, Director of the China Clean Transportation Partnership Secretariat and Policy Research of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, and Mr. Gong Huiming, Director of the China Clean Transportation Partnership Executive Committee and Director of the Transportation Project, Energy Foundation introduced and summarized the workshop respectively.

All the Participants of the 7th CCTP Workshop

Participants are from:

Energy Foundation

Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation

World Resources Institute

Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport

Guiyang Municipal Commission of Transport

China Academy of Transportation Sciences

School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology

China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd.

Transportation Planning Institute, Beijing Transport Institute

Shanghai Electric Vehicle Public Data Collecting, Monitoring and Research Center

World Bank

Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co.,Ltd.

BAIC TELD (Beijing) Amperex Technology Co., Ltd

Potevio New Energy Co., Ltd, Beijing

Chongqing Public Transport

Jinan Bus Group

Guiyang Public Transport (Group) Co., Ltd

China EV 100

Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Natural Resources Defense Council