Transport Minister Prajin Juntong said Monday he has ordered relevant agencies to study the use of electric buses and trains to cut long-term fuel and maintenance costs.
The order went out to the State Railway of Thailand; state-owned Transport Co, which runs inter-provincial buses; and the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, which operates passenger buses in Bangkok and nearby provinces.
The shift to electric would be environmentally friendly and mitigate the volatile pricing of oil and gas over the long term, ACM Prajin said.
The plan will not affect the BMTA's acquisition of 489 gas-fuelled buses in July, but its plan to buy more than 2,000 additional buses must be adapted for the electric-first policy, the minister said.
The purchase price of electric buses will be three times higher than that of conventional vehicles, but would be worthwhile over the long haul due to savings in energy and maintenance, he said.
The transport minister hopes all trains will be electric by 2032 and that the SRT will rent, rather than buy, locomotives to accommodate fast modernisation.
The complete fleet of electric trains would consume 500 megawatts of electrical power, increasing the country's overall consumption by 1-2% above the current 26,000 MW, he said.
Electric trains would launch on the Hat Yai-Padang Besar route within 2017, ACM Prajin said.
For inter-provincial buses, ACM Prajin said electric buses could run on short trips only because they would need to be recharged every five hours.