Why your city is still waiting on e-buses and how tariffs could make things worse [Video]

Electric bus manufacturers hit hard by pandemic-era supply chain chaos could soon find themselves pummelled by a trade war. 

“The immediate effect of the [U.S. President] Donald Trump tariffs is buses become more expensive overnight,” said Josipa Petrunic, the president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC).

Petrunic said the highly integrated North American industry could see companies hike prices, leaving cash-strapped Canadian transit agencies with a big problem. 

“All of a sudden a city that has only so much money can buy many fewer buses from what it planned,” she said. 

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Cities across Canada are already making difficult choices in the face of intolerably long manufacturing waits, including buying more diesel buses instead. 

Manufacturers worry outdated payment models and incredible levels of customization have forced them into a corner, which Petrunic arguing the industry has brought to the point of an “existential crisis.”