First European BYD e6 EVs to arrive in Rotterdam City
31 May 2011
BYD Company Ltd (BYD) and Rotterdam City entered into an agreement to deliver BYD’s all-electric e6 vehicles as part of the Netherlands’ green transportation project “75-EV-RO”; these will be the first BYD e6s in Europe.
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| Netherlands Prince Maurits van Oranje test drives the BYD all-electric e6 in Rotterdam. Click to enlarge. |
As part of the 75-EV-RO project, the Rotterdam government plans to purchase 75 new energy vehicles of different types to create a new energy fleet in Rotterdam. These projects are intended to not only popularize the concept of electrified transportation, but also resolve public concerns over vehicle safety, charging technology and local environment impact.
Equipped with a Li iron phosphate battery pack, the e6 (a 5-seat crossover all-electric vehicle) can travel up to 300 km (186 miles) per charge. The BYD e6 has been used as taxis in Shenzhen, China for more than a year; the fleet of 50 e6 Shenzhen taxis, in service since May 2010, have now surpassed 3 million kilometers (1.86 million miles) in cumulative fleet miles.
The 50 e6 taxis averaged over 163 miles per day in city traffic for over a year at 60,000 miles each. That implies some significant reliability and gas savings.
Posted by: kelly | 31 May 2011 at 05:19 AM
@Kelly, I think you have your miles and Km mixed up.
It is 163 KM / day, not miles (assuming 365 days/year for all 50 taxis).
Which is just as well, as the battery is only good for 300 km / charge.
It must take ages to charge them.
100 miles @ 3 miles / KwH = 33 KwH - @ what charging rate ?
I wonder do they run them till the battery almost goes flat and then recharge, or recharge every night like good little boys - it is hard to predict what taxi drivers will do - they tend to keep going till they get enough money.
Good to see Rotterdam trying a mixed "new energy" fleet - the comparisons between different types will be interesting.
On Taxis and charging:
Many taxis are run at night, which is when you want them to recharge from a grid usage point of view, so that is not so good.
However, taxis do a LOT of stop/start driving, so they are perfect candidates for electric drive from an efficiency point of view (once you get the power into the car).
A battery swap would work well in this case, you could charge at night and just swap the batteries over when required (except when you were charging).
Buses would be even better - charge a PHEV bus at night (when not in use) and use it during the day.
Posted by: mahonj | 31 May 2011 at 05:44 AM
Taxis are ideal for BEVs because they can recharge many times a day while waiting for passengers/customers at the taxis stands. The BYD e6 EV seems to be very well suited for that task with 300+ Km between charges.
No need to be-little their achievement.
Posted by: HarveyD | 31 May 2011 at 07:05 AM
BYD got some street cred with the taxi thing. Now they need to deliver in larger numbers for more applications like rental and corporate to get it in people's minds that this company is a major player.
Posted by: SJC | 31 May 2011 at 08:37 AM