São Paulo putting 50 Scania ethanol buses into service
29 November 2010
São Paulo, Brazil has ordered 50 Scania ethanol buses as the first wave of a planned initial fleet of 200 ethanol buses (earlier post). The first 50 buses will go into service in May.
There are a total of some 15,000 public transport buses in São Paulo. One official environmental target is that all such buses should operate on renewable fuels by no later than 2018.
Since the supply of biogas is limited, ethanol will be the dominant biofuel. This means there is very large potential for Scania, which is the only manufacturer of heavy-duty buses with ethanol-powered engines.
—Wilson Pereira, head of sales of Buses and Coaches at Scania Brasil
Scania is receiving the ethanol bus order after a few years of field trials in São Paulo, coordinated by experts with links to the University of São Paulo and with participation by ethanol suppliers, bus bodybuilders, operators and São Paulo transport authorities.
All buses will be manufactured in Brazil. Chassis assembly will take place at Scania’s production unit in São Paulo and bodywork will be done by a local company.
Not very impressive percentage wise. Brazil commits a little over 1% of their fleet to renewable energy. With the advent of high cycle batteries like the Altairnano Li-titanate - these buses might do better to convert to hybrid or pure EVs.
Still, any movement toward sustainable energy use is a good one and we congratulate Brazil for starting down this very productive road.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 29 November 2010 at 09:58 AM