Electric buses could save a city with half a million residents — one similar in size to Sacramento, California — roughly $12 million each
year if the city’s buses were to run on electricity rather than diesel fuel, according to a study by the Volvo Group and the audit and advisory firm KPMG. Factors such as noise, travel time, emissions, energy use, natural resource use, and roughly $2.9 million in avoided health care costs contributed to the annual savings, the analysis says. Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city, recently began operating a new electric bus line built by Volvo and powered by wind and hydro electricity, says Niklas Gustafsson, Volvo’s head of sustainability. The buses’ environmentally friendly design, combined with the fact that they are completely silent and emissions-free, has made the line popular in Gothenburg, he says.
Electric bus, Bonn, Germany