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Latin American cities have reached a milestone of 10,000 electric buses in operation across more than 80 cities in 13 countries.
Santiago, São Paulo and Bogotá together account for more than 7,000 electric buses, offering lessons for Indian megacities.
São Paulo has built Brazil’s largest electric bus fleet, with 1,759 electric buses, including 1,570 battery-electric vehicles and 189 trolleybuses.
The city’s model combines regulation, large-scale financing and a ban on replacing end-of-life buses with new diesel vehicles.
Indian megacities trying to clean up public transport can draw lessons from Latin America, where more than 80 cities have now put 10,000 electric buses into operation, according to data from E-Bus Radar announced by C40 Cities and the International Council on Clean Transportation.
The milestone, announced during Lat.Bus 2026 in São Paulo, marks a turning point in the decarbonisation of public transport in the region. C40 Cities and ICCT in a press statement said electric buses across Latin America are helping avoid an estimated 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
Santiago, São Paulo and Bogotá are leading the region’s electric mobility transition, with more than 7,000 electric buses operating across the three cities. The scale of adoption offers a useful comparison for Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai, where public transport systems are under pressure from congestion, air pollution and rising urban populations.
The Latin American experience shows that the transition to zero-emission transport is no longer a distant ambition, said Ilan Cuperstein, C40 Cities regional director for Latin America. He said the shift was delivering benefits for climate, health, public transport quality and local economies, while showing that “financing does not have to be a barrier”.
São Paulo has emerged as one of the region’s most significant examples. In June 2026, the city added 500 electric buses at once, taking its fleet to 1,759 electric buses, the largest in Brazil and the second-largest in Latin America. This includes 1,570 battery-electric vehicles and 189 trolleybuses.
The city says the fleet avoids about 130,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year and saves around 57 million litres of diesel annually, the environmental equivalent of planting about 11 million trees.
A key part of São Paulo’s transition has been its financing model. The municipality structured an investment programme worth about R$6.5 billion ($1.26 billion), combining national and international resources, including support from the Brazilian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The city has also made electric mobility part of permanent public policy. Under municipal regulations, operators can no longer replace buses that reach the end of their life with new diesel vehicles.
C40 Cities and ICCT said this model, combining regulation, financing and technical support, could be replicated elsewhere. Cities such as Salvador, Recife, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro are already advancing electric bus projects with support from C40, the ZEBRA Alliance and Brazil Mutirão.