BYD unveils 60' articulated battery-electric bus
15 October 2014
At the 2014 American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Expo in Houston, BYD Motors unveiled a 60-foot, articulated battery-electric bus offering a range of 170+ miles with a passenger load of up to 120 passengers. The bus has been in development for almost two years, specifically for US rapid transit markets.
These buses run entirely off battery power lasting up to 24 hours on a single charge, with single off-peak charging time of 2-4 hours. No additional generation capacity is needed to be built to charge our buses at night since the grid is only 40% utilized.
—Brendan Riley, BYD Motors Fleet Sales Vice President
Also on display at the BYD APTA exhibit was a 40-foot, battery-electric Transit bus from Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA).
BYD Motors is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BYD Company Ltd, the largest domestic auto-manufacturer and electric-bus manufacturer in the world. BYD is a publicly traded company, with Hong Kong-listed stock 60% of which is owned by US investors;Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is the largest single shareholder at 9.9%.
Excellent idea.
Our Metropolitain Transport Agency, with $122,000+/year drivers, needs 1000+ of these 120+ passenger e-buses to replace (1) current 40-ft diesel units and (2) current 60-ft articulated diesel units.
Major down town routes with more passengers could use 160+ tripple articulated e-units to further reduce the number of very costly drivers.
In the not too distant future, autonomous drive (smaller) e-buses may be the best solution.
Posted by: HarveyD | 15 October 2014 at 10:28 AM
The Antelope Valley has quite a bit of sun. The BYD can only charge off-line, typically at night when solar power is not available. Something like the Busbaar system, with buffering such as flywheels, would be able get solar power to an electric bus in near-real time and requiring a much smaller battery.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 16 October 2014 at 05:47 AM
Most flywheels can store energy effectively for rather short periods (1.5 to 3.0 hours).
Next generation batteries will increase city e-bus range from 160 miles to well over 320 miles. All recharges will be done once a day during low rate hours much the same as with diesel fuel.
Posted by: HarveyD | 21 October 2014 at 05:12 PM