Summary - Clean Buses in APAC 2026

Asia Pacific is undergoing the fastest and most diverse transition to clean public bus fleets anywhere in the world. Governments across the region are committing to large-scale electrification, hydrogen mobility pilots, and CNG transitions — driven by air-quality concerns, climate goals, and rising urbanisation.

In 2025-26 alone, APAC markets announced some of the world’s most ambitious clean bus initiatives. Massive fleet expansion programmes such as India’s tender for 10,900 e-buses, Indonesia’s electrification roadmap for Surabaya, Surakarta, and Pekanbaru, Vietnam’s citywide conversion programs in Ho Chi Minh City and Hue, and Pakistan’s deployments in Sindh and Punjab were launched. Hydrogen mobility pilots in Australia (Tasmania), Taiwan, India (Leh), and Malaysia (Sarawak) were undertaken.

Further, large-scale procurement and manufacturing advancements were made in Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, and Malaysia. There is also emphasis on rapid digitisation of transit operations, including contactless fare systems, automation pilots, and fleet-wide real-time monitoring systems. There is a strong push by OEMs including BYD, Yutong, Tata, Scania, ADL, VinFast, Higer, Golden Dragon, Kim Long Motor, Switch Mobility, and more that are expanding their regional production, export, and partnership strategies.

At the same time, infrastructure remains a major challenge: charging hubs, grid capacity, energy storage, hydrogen production, depots, and land availability all require coordinated planning.

In light of the developments, Global Mass Transit is organising the fifth conference on Clean Buses in APAC 2026 on March 17 at Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, Thailand.

The mission of the conference is to discuss key initiatives in deployment of electric and hydrogen buses in APAC, plans, policies, programmes and funding to transition to a clean and zero-emission bus (ZEB) fleet, opportunities in deployment of electric and hydrogen buses and related infrastructure, the way forward for public transport authorities and public transport operators (PTOs), best practices in transitioning to a ZEB fleet, experience so far and the lessons learned. The conference will also showcase new technologies, tools and solutions.

The conference will bring together federal governments, state and local government officials, public transport authorities, operators, OEMs, bus manufacturers, suppliers of bus components, technology providers, energy providers, charging solution suppliers and battery manufacturers, hydrogen-fuelling infrastructure providers, funding agencies, multilateral development banks, consultants, researchers and academicians. It will cover a range of zero-emission buses and solutions.

The conference will have targeted presentations, panel discussions and case studies, with participation from a wide range of international experts, who will provide valuable insights and actionable advice. The agenda will cover the plans of cities for deploying clean and zero-emission buses in APAC. It will also highlight the latest technological developments and solutions to improve the customer experience.

The conference will, moreover, help understand the role governments, public transport authorities, transport operators, manufacturers, and consultants can play in deploying clean fuel buses in a city or region. Additionally, it will provide insights into the offerings of leading manufacturers and suppliers.

There will also be a dedicated session on the experience of leading cities in the deployment of zero-emission buses. This will provide an opportunity to learn how to deploy clean buses and charging/fuelling infrastructure, mobilise funding, and manage stakeholder expectations.

Emerging trends and market outlook for zero-emission buses (ZEBs) including electric and hydrogen buses in APAC
Current policies and standards for clean buses, electric buses, hydrogen buses
Major programmes involving the testing and deployment of clean buses in APAC
Case studies and experiences from different cities
Total cost of ownership (TCO) of zero-emission buses
Best practices in the deployment of electric buses and hydrogen-fuelled buses
Key legal, organisational, technical, operational and financial issues in the adoption of ZEBs
Funding models used across APAC (public, PPPs, leasing, battery-as-a-service)
Public procurements versus joint procurements
Clean buses for long-distance operations
Business models, risk sharing mechanisms
Electric bus charging infrastructure: Innovations, new technologies and infrastructure for large-scale fleets
OEM perspective on hydrogen: Launching new technologies, reducing costs, improving efficiency and commercialising hydrogen
Impact of electric bus deployment on the power grid
Planning for, scheduling of and monitoring ZEBs, fleet management
Operations and maintenance of ZEBs
Collaborations in the bus market
Autonomous and electric bus experiments
New technologies and innovations in ZEBs
Data, AI, telematics, and fleet optimization for large cities

Fifth Conference on

Clean Buses in APAC

Deployment of Electric and Hydrogen Buses and Infrastructure