Panorama of electromobility in public transport in the metropolitan area of São Paulo - Brazil

Resumo

Electrification of vehicles emerges as an efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in urban systems. Electric buses “E-buses” are a reality in many cities around the world. However, in Brazil, they are striving to take the streets and most of them are running in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo (MASP). This study aims to investigate the reasons why the bus electric fleet in MASP performs around 2% of the total buses in circulation and the future of this sector as one way to reduce GHG emissions. To do so, we conducted a literature review using scientific articles, books, specialized magazines, and reports. The results indicated that the high acquisition cost of vehicles and operational infrastructure related to Diesel buses are the main challenges to developing electromobility. Moreover, the aversion of bus operators to electric traction models and the uncertainty of the resale of used vehicles are factors that increase even more the non-adoption. The limitation of this study is that was considered only the literature available and a survey with government and operators in the future may help to establish a better scenario over the motives that difficult the electric buses implementation in MASP.