Why BMTC’s big e-bus push is not without risks

Most vehicles in Bengaluru’s public transport agency will become electric in the coming years but questions remain about their efficiency and reliability

Bengaluru: Mumbai has local trains, Delhi the metro — but what is Bengaluru’s true public transport lifeline?

With a daily ridership of just over a million in a city with nearly 15 million people, Namma Metro is not really a lifeline, at least not yet.

In a city obsessed with personal vehicles, the role played by Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses in carrying large numbers of people often goes unnoticed.

However, BMTC buses still face a reputation problem. Given a choice, few Bengalureans would travel by BMTC’s noisy, polluting and overcrowded buses. But this perception is slowly changing as BMTC adds plush, noiseless and comfortable buses.

In traffic-choked Bengaluru, BMTC buses carry 4.5 million passengers per day, transporting everyone from garment factory workers to IT professionals in the city’s tech hubs.

In the next few years, Bengaluru is set to have over 10,000 city buses to become the city with most buses. Over 6,500 of them will be electric. The potential sounds great but there are simmering worries underneath.

Unlike diesel buses, which are outright purchased, the BMTC leases electric buses under the Gross Cost Contract (GCC). The manufacturer provides full operations — including charging infrastructure, maintenance facilities and service readiness — under a unified contract structure. The BMTC pays on a per-kilometre basis and deploys the conductor. The contract typically lasts 12 years.

Despite the BMTC’s pivot to electric buses (it currently has 1,730 e-buses in a fleet of 7,152), it continues to face serious operational challenges.

Electric buses frequently experience breakdowns due to suspension/steering and battery issues, along with poor maintenance, inadequate driver training, bus and driver shortages, and occasional driver strikes. These result in trip cancellations and revenue losses.

On October 14, 2025, traffic came to a standstill along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) for over four hours after an AC bus broke down near a busy intersection. Attempts to tow the bus with a crane failed because its steering had jammed. A traffic police investigation later found the breakdown was caused by a brake issue.

Two weeks later, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy addressed a press conference to complain that electric buses were giving the BMTC “a bad name.” He wrote two letters to central PSU Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), which manages the allocation and oversight of electric bus contract execution.

Reddy sought a thorough evaluation of all GCC operators and a joint compliance monitoring mechanism between State Transport Undertakings (STUs) and the ministry concerned.

But nearly six months later, he said, most of the issues remain unresolved.

“We wrote two letters but there’s no resolution. The ministry called a meeting with bus manufacturers and gave them a 45-day deadline to fix the issues. But there’s been no let-up. We need reliable buses,” he told DH.

According to him, trip cancellations involving e-buses are frequent. “Out of let’s say 190 km assured daily kilometres, they run only 130-140 km,” he added.

Karnataka has now asked for clarifications about electric bus reliability in the new contracts under the PM E-Drive Scheme, under which the BMTC will receive another 4,500 buses in the next few years.

“We’ll have to pay 90% of the lease amount. Manufacturers want an exit clause but we can’t be left in the lurch,” Reddy noted.

A senior BMTC official with direct knowledge of the e-bus operations flagged the root cause of the problem — bus manufacturers did not accurately assess battery capacity requirements, Bengaluru traffic conditions or the load factor.

“They assumed a certain power requirement (in kWh) and battery life would be sufficient for a given number of kilometres. But the power requirement is not sustaining the vehicles because of our high load factor (80%) and heavy traffic flow,” the official explained.

While manufacturers have addressed issues related to driver strikes and battery performance to some extent, buses older than three years continue to face problems. Breakdowns remain frequent, he added.

To compensate for revenue losses, BMTC imposed a penalty of Rs 25 crore on the four companies that supplied the electric buses. The penalties are being adjusted against lease payments, he said.

A BMTC staffer at the Subhash Nagar (Majestic) depot explained how the technical issues affect operations.

“Our first-shift buses need to depart from the depot at 6 am but many electric buses face half-hour delays, which has a cascading effect on the day’s operations. The traffic situation makes it worse,” he said.

In contrast, night-service e-buses do not face such issues because traffic is lighter, he noted.

The depot serves 66 electric buses and has 23 charging ports — 14 for AC buses and nine for non-AC buses.

A full charge takes up to two hours and lasts about 200 km, as per the battery capacity. Opportunity charging takes about 45 minutes and lasts 60 km, the staffer said.

The senior BMTC official quoted earlier said electric buses were attractive because they were cheaper to operate than diesel vehicles.

“What we really need are stable operations and good driver skills. Manufacturers should demonstrate professionalism in bus operations and maintenance, including battery and crew management,” he said.

At the same time, the official cautioned that since EV technology is relatively new, “everyone must wait and watch.”

An analyst who has tracked the EV sector for over two decades believes very few manufacturers have been able to deliver truly top-quality buses.

“In the auto industry, extensive testing and iterative improvements take a long time. Manufacturers in India are still at a relatively nascent stage compared to global players like BYD, whose systems have been tested and deployed in China for decades,” he explained.

According to the analyst, developing a top-quality product typically requires at least five years of testing, but to accelerate launches some companies release buses before they are fully tested.

“As a result, the first few batches often face problems. Until an improved iteration is introduced, such issues tend to persist. With limited testing, manufacturers may underestimate several aspects — from hardware and software quality to traffic conditions and load factors,” he said.

Many manufacturers have been introducing electric buses rapidly, often relying mainly on workshop-level R&D rather than extensive on-road trials.

“Even if a bus runs about 50,000 kilometres a year, it takes time to accumulate meaningful data. To validate reliability, vehicles typically need to run three to five lakh kilometres under varying loads and traffic conditions,” he added.

Still, the analyst believes moving to EVs is a good idea, particularly in the current global context where many countries are grappling with energy security concerns.

He also said leasing was better than buying the buses because manufacturers could be held accountable for operational problems.

“The responsibility for vehicle quality, reliability and efficiency then lies with the manufacturer or operator. Otherwise, there is always a risk that suppliers may cut corners.”

The state government is developing a strategy to address issues in e-bus operations and will raise its concerns with the highest authorities, said NV Prasad, Secretary, Transport Department.

For a city that depends on buses more than any other mode of public transport, ensuring that its electric fleet runs reliably may prove just as important as expanding it.