Brazil looks to encourage decarbonization of bus fleets

Brazil’s federal government seeks to encourage cities to speed up replacing diesel bus fleets with electric vehicles.

The cities ministry and the transport and development policy institute ITDP Brasil will train local officials in the sustainable urban development platform ReDUS. 

"The learning cycle includes lectures and workshops for municipal and state public managers. The first event focused on the public procurement process for electric buses and the second will be on the challenges of electric fleet specifications and will take place on May 22," the ministry said in a statement.

Although the government's efforts to electrify bus fleets are considered positive for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the country faces limits in expanding electrification to all vehicles.

"Brazil's path to expanding vehicle electrification involves the bus fleets in cities, this is the great expansion frontier," Vinícius Alvarenga, the CEO of Brazilian lithium producer Companhia Brasileira de Lítio (CBL) and a member of the board of Brazil’s electric vehicle association ABVE, told BNamericas.

"With regard to the light vehicle fleet, it’s unlikely that we’ll have massive electrification because Brazil is rich in ethanol and must opt for hybrid models [with a mix of ethanol and gasoline] and also because we have a very big shortfall in infrastructure to support the electrification of the entire fleet. In the future, only a small part of the Brazilian vehicle fleet will be electric and because of this, Brazil is not likely to be a large final consumer of lithium, used in the production of batteries," he said.

Last year, the government announced its PAC investment program, which encompasses several initiatives in the area of infrastructure and urban mobility. The program includes financing lines to encourage the electrification of bus fleets.