BYD to add another 183 electric buses to Santiago’s fleet
17 June 2019
The Chilean Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Gloria Hutt, recently announced a new order for 183 BYD electric buses for the Chilean capital of Santiago, due to arrive in August of this year.
The 183 BYD electric buses will join the 100 electric buses that BYD and local partner Enel brought into Santiago last December, giving BYD a dominant share of more than 60% in the capital’s electric bus market.
The existing fleet of K9FEs operating in Santiago.
They will be integrated into the existing Metbus fleet to operate the popular Avenida Grecia route, becoming the first route operated by only electric buses in Latin America. Metbus is also one of the largest pure electric bus fleet operators in the Americas.
With this new batch of BYD buses, there will be a total fleet of 411 electric buses operating in the capital, making Santiago the city with the largest pure electric bus fleet outside of China.
The first 100 BYD buses were delivered to Santiago in December 2018.
BYD electric buses are servicing markets in many countries across Latin America, including Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and Uruguay. Globally, BYD’s pure electric buses, taxi, and other vehicles have spread to more than 300 cities, in more than 50 countries and regions.
With 411 e-buses the city of Santiago may have as many e-buses as USA + Canada (California excepted)?
Posted by: HarveyD | 17 June 2019 at 08:35 AM
Buses will lead the way off fossil fuels because they highlight the advantages of EVs.
Posted by: Lad | 17 June 2019 at 09:12 AM
Yes Lad:,
Many large cities in China are already using 100% e-bus fleets. We should try to catch up, specially in areas with clean (Hydro-Wind-Solar-Geothermal) e-energy.
Posted by: HarveyD | 19 June 2019 at 09:58 AM
Shenzhen, China was the first large city (12+M) with a 100% e-bus fleet with 16385 e-units. China has 400,000+ e-buses in use (almost 99% of the world total) and is adding another 10,000+/week. China is planning 100% e-bus fleet in all major cities by 2025.
Meanwhile, we (USA and Canada) are adding very few e-buses to the current diesel bus fleet because they cost $33,000 more per unit, over an eight year period.
Meanwhile, the oil/gas industry is being subsidized at the rate of $360+B/year in USA/Canada. Locally we are still subsidizing (at 90+%) the purchase of diesel city and school buses. A real shame.
Posted by: HarveyD | 19 June 2019 at 10:25 AM