North Korea is operating electric buses in Pyongyang and in Kanggye, Jagang Province.
Citing the Cabinet newspaper Minju Joson on the 25th, the Korean Central News Agency said, "In the capital Pyongyang, battery bus routes are increasing every year," and reported that a project is underway this year to establish an electric bus route from Pyongyang Station to Chonjin-dong in Nakrang District.
The Pyongyang City Passenger Transport General Enterprise is pushing ahead with the construction of a related facility for the production of battery buses (electric buses), and the Pyongyang Trolleybus Factory is also said to be working on converting existing trolleybuses into electric buses.
In Pyongyang, electric buses were first deployed on the Munsu–Tosong section early last year. At the time, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan's newspaper Choson Sinbo introduced that dozens of electric buses had been put into service on the route.
Recently, electric buses were also introduced in Kanggye. Rodong Sinmun said on the 6th that the Jagang Province Party Committee opened a new bus route, secured more than 20 electric buses, and began operations in July.
The expansion of electric buses in North Korea is seen as a move to cope with chronic power shortages and difficulties in securing fuel. While existing rail and trolleybuses receive power through overhead lines—causing transmission losses and making operations difficult during blackouts—electric buses run on charged batteries and are relatively less constrained.
North Korean media are promoting that electric buses are faster than existing trolleybuses, have high operating efficiency because they do not require separate tracks, and also help save power.