Analysis by Volvo Group and audit firm KPMG has considered factors such as noise, travel time, emissions, energy use, taxes and the use of natural resources.
Volvo’s head of sustainability Nikls Gustafsson says these factors are not usually taken into account for standard investment appraisals. “Therefore, to quantify all of the aspects, we have now calculated the monetary value of an electric bus line.
“The results show that, irrespective of the number of parameters taken into consideration, electric buses comprise the leading public transport solution.”
The analysis was based on a city with half a million inhabitants and 400 buses, running on electric instead of diesel. The figure of SEK 100 million per year is the total annualised societal saving, and includes decreased care costs for the population thanks to reduced noise and air pollution.
“By supplementing standard financial analysis with socioeconomic and environmental factors, one arrives at a more complete picture of the investment’s impact on companies and society,” confirms Daniel Dellham of KPMG.