‘Low-hanging fruit’: States lack ambition in energy transition, bus industry says

Australian bus manufacturers, workers and energy experts have called on state governments to provide the industry with firmer guarantees about how many electric buses they will buy as Australia’s eastern states seek to replace thousands of diesel vehicles before the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

Victoria, Queensland and the ACT have committed to buying only zero-emission buses from 2025, while NSW plans for all buses in the greater Sydney region to be electric by 2035. Bus manufacturers say they can build hundreds of buses a year “from tomorrow”, but need more certainty from state governments who purchase and own most of Australia’s public bus fleet.

“We’re ready to go now,” said Mitch Peden, general manager at Volvo Buses Australia. “Hopefully, government will give body builders assurance of supply to enable them to invest in renewable energy [and new technology] on their sites.”

Volvo’s all-electric bus chassis will be put to the test in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs from next month as part of the Victorian government’s zero emission bus trial. The Victorian government said the trial would inform the transition of about 4000 diesel buses in the state’s public fleet, including about 2200 in regional Victoria, to zero emissions.

Yuri Tessari, chief commercial officer at Volgren Australia, which has just finished building the first of eight Volvo battery-electric buses involved in the trial, said replacing the 500 buses it built each year with electric would be relatively straightforward.

“For us, building on an electric chassis or on a diesel chassis is very similar,” he said. “If the government or the customers want to go fully electric from tomorrow, let’s say, we can start building hundreds.”

Only 0.1 per cent of buses in Australia are electric, according to a report released by the Australia Institute on Friday. Audrey Quicke, lead transport researcher at the Canberra-based think tank, said the bus industry needed more policy certainty from state governments and financial support from the federal government to plan for a net-zero manufacturing future.

“Electrifying Australia’s bus fleets should be easy because most are publicly owned,” she said. “If state governments don’t pick this low-hanging fruit soon, we should question the substance of their net-zero commitments.”