In 2011, the electric-vehicle manufacturer BYD Auto unveiled an early model of an electric bus at an industry conference in Belgium. The head of BYD in Europe, Isbrand Ho, later recalled in an interview that, at the time, the launch was considered a joke; “everyone was laughing at BYD – for making a toy”. Just eight years later, major European cities are committed to electrifying their bus fleets; 240 electric buses will be running in London this year, and Paris has bought 1,000 electric buses which will start service in 2020. The rapid uptake of electric buses is occurring in cities around the world, with Bloomberg predicting that by 2030, 84% of global municipal bus sales will be electric. The pace of the electric bus revolution has been most extraordinary in China. As electric buses produce zero tailpipe emissions, they have become a vital piece of the puzzle in […]