Electric buses are replacing diesel buses in cities worldwide, but not in the United States

Electric buses replacing diesel buses in cities beyond China

The world bought almost 70,000 electric buses in 2025, 12% more than in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. Electric buses replacing diesel buses in cities is no longer only a China story. China still runs the large majority of what is already on the road, more than 90% of a worldwide fleet of 780,000 electric buses as of 2024, according to the World Resources Institute. But the share of new sales going to China fell from nearly 100% in 2018 to around 60% in 2025, not because China bought fewer, but because other regions bought thousands more of their own.

Europe sold more than 12,000 electric buses in 2025, up 28% from 2024, and battery electric models took more than 55% of new city bus sales across the European Union. India sold more than 4,000 for the first time. Latin America sold more than 3,000, more than triple its 2024 total, with Chile alone selling nearly 2,000, more than 1 in 5 buses sold in that country that year. The World Resources Institute names 5 countries, China, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland and Denmark, that took electric buses from under 6% of sales to over 60% within 6 years. The institute puts the worldwide sales share at 6% in 2024, needing to reach 56% by 2030.

Santiago built the largest electric bus fleet outside China

Santiago, Chile ran 2 electric buses in 2016. By November 2025 it ran 3,544, 55% of its whole public bus fleet, according to Red Movilidad, the government agency that runs public buses in Santiago. That makes Santiago the largest electric bus fleet outside China, behind only Beijing and Shenzhen, according to Sustainable Bus. The agency has set a target of 4,406 buses, 68% of the fleet, by March 2026, a target not yet confirmed reached in these sources. Juan Carlos Munoz, the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications for Chile, put a number on the pace himself.

In Santiago, more than half of the buses are already electric, and we have had a growth of 355% during this administration.

Juan Carlos Munoz, Minister of Transport and Telecommunications for Chile, speaking about the Santiago fleet. Source 3.

The United States shows sales and fleet size can move apart

Electric bus sales fell 40% in the United States in 2025 against 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. That looks like a retreat until the total United States fleet of zero emission buses, meaning a bus that runs on a battery or a hydrogen fuel cell instead of diesel, is counted separately, rather than compared to the sales figure as if the 2 numbers measured the same thing. CALSTART, the industry nonprofit that tracks transit buses in the country, counted 8,116 of them funded, ordered, delivered or deployed as of July 2025, up 16% from 7,028 a year earlier. The International Energy Agency counts new sales inside calendar year 2025 alone. CALSTART counts a running total, and buses ordered a year or more earlier keep arriving even in a year when new orders slow. CALSTART own report names that lag directly, pointing to extended vehicle lead times and a constrained domestic manufacturing base, a detail only visible by reading the full report, not its headline number. California holds the largest state fleet.

The average range of a battery electric bus model on sale today is 360 kilometers, about 15% more than in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency, which narrows the routes a city has to plan around a diesel backup.