SUSTAINABLE BUS 2-2023

OUTLOOKS
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THE ELECTRIFICATION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN QATAR
WORLD CUP
ELECTRIFICATION
We visited the facilities and operations of Middle
East’s leading electric bus fleet. Staggering
numbers, Western standards, ambitious roadmap.
But questions are not missing...
3,000
Buses in
Mowasalat’s fleet
Around 900 e-buses were in operation
in Qatar during the World
Cup, sporting the livery of public
transport company Mowasalat.
That this was the most contested World
Cup ever, and for very good reasons, is
now well known. Exploitation of workers
and corruption are established facts. Less
known, and worthy of interest, is the fleet
electrification effort put in place by the
Doha operator, under government control,
a real large-scale transition experiment to
electric technology. An effort
supported by a massive government
investment, and which
does not fail to raise some questions.
We had the opportunity to visit
the facilities and take a close
look at the operations thanks
to the invitation of the Chinese
manufacturer Yutong, winner
of the maxi tender for 1,002
vehicles (741 electric) issued
by Mowasalat. For the Chinese
group, the world’s leading bus
manufacturer in terms of sales
volumes, this is a first step in
the region: Yutong has signed
a framework agreement with
the Qatar Free Zones Authority
and Mowasalat to establish a KD
factory (a plant where vehicles
destined for a specific market are
assembled) in Qatar that will
serve the entire area. The tender
attracted bids from a dozen builders,
but Mowasalat underlined
that no Western builder has expressed
interest in the electric lot. Price
certainly matters, but that’s not all: there
An estimate of the cost
per km, in a country where
diesel costs €0.50 per
litre and electricity €0.03
per kWh? An e-kilometre
costs one fifth of a fossil
kilometre. It is a pity that
the electric kilometre today
is itself ‘fossil powered’...
is no European manufacturer capable of
guaranteeing a similar production volume.
Let’s not talk about third world models: the
E11s delivered to Doha are identical to the
models in service, about a hundred, in Bergen,
Norway. With the addition of some
specifications, including enhanced air conditioning
in order to accept the challenge
of a region where temperatures above 40
degrees are the norm for most of the year.
Mowasalat: the fleet
To begin, a picture of the Mowasalat fleet.
Over 3,000 vehicles, of which 909 are
electric: a third of the total. The latter are
mainly signed by Yutong, plus a part of
vehicles under the Asiastar logo. The e-
buses cover several mission profiles: the
main slice is made up of the 772 Class I,
of which 91 are less than 9 meters long. 46
school buses (out of a total of over 2,000),
70 high-floor intercity buses and 21 articulated
buses used on BRT services still operate
in electric mode. Curiously there are
few gas-powered buses (170), if one thinks
of the importance of the Gulf state as a player
in the energy market (in 2021, imports
from Qatar covered 24 percent of the LNG
used in the European Union).
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