Bogotá to test BYD electric buses
19 March 2013
Express del Futuro, a partner-operator of Transmilenio, and BYD unveiled plans for an electric bus fleet in Bogotá, Colombia. The BYD K9 all-electric buses will be placed into trial service as of Q2 2013 in the Colombian capital.
In December 2012, BYD Ltd and Praco Didacol (BYD’s Colombian distribution partner) announced that BYD e6s would being placed into Taxi service in Q1 2013 in the Colombian capital as a pilot. (Earlier post.)
The first stage of the project will extend over a month, taking into account aspects of operational performance, energy consumption during the driving cycle, battery behavior in terms of discharge and recharge during the cycles, and total energy consumption. Additionally, weight loads will be used to verify the robustness, performance and behavior at different elevations in Bogotá.
The results of the tests will be compared with last year’s tests completed by the C40-Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI-C40), and explore the possibility of implementing this technology in new TransMilenio mass transit projects. The objective of this initiative is to implement mass-adoption of electric buses in the city of Bogotá and is backed by Transmilenio, the Secretary of Environment, Express del Futuro, BYD Motor Colombia SAS, and Praco Didacol and will use BYD’s 12 meter buses with a carrying capacity of ~80 standing passengers.
Since e-city buses an e-taxis are the way to go in the near future, the world should support this and other similar projects. Most large cities, specially Beijing, Mexico City, Tokyo, San Paolo, LA, NY, and many other cities with frequent high pollution levels should board the train.
Novobus, a Canadian Volvo Corporation, is currently actively working on light weight aluminum e-city buses. Their massive introduction in real operation is due by 2015/2016.
Posted by: HarveyD | 20 March 2013 at 09:46 AM