pure electric bus (eBUS-12) entered trial service yesterday with the Brussels bus operator STIB/MIVB (Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles) following a VIP inaugural event in the heart of the European capital.
The Brussels Minister for Public Transport Mrs. Brigitte Grouwels, accompanied by STIB/MIVB CEO Mr. Brieuc de Meeus d'Argenteuil and other city officials, took delivery of the bus after a brief city centre tour in the bus.
The two-month trial in Brussels is part of a Europe-wide initiative by BYD, the world’s largest electric bus manufacturer, to introduce electric bus technology to cities large and small. The Brussels trial is one of the most significant because of course the city is home to the EU Government and its highly influential officials and politicians.
The BYD electric bus on trial in Brussels is comparable to the buses now ordered by Dutch Friesland Province for services in the northern part of The Netherlands (BYD won the first EU public tender there and the buses will be delivered shortly). They are 12 meters long (40 feet) and are able to run 250 km (155 miles) on a single charge in urban conditions. The Fe battery (Iron Phosphate battery) fitted to the BYD electric buses boasts the highest safety, longest service life and most environmentally-friendly rechargeable chemistry and contains no heavy metals or toxic electrolytes.
As well as in Europe, BYD electric buses are now in regular passenger-carrying service in several cities in China and North America, meaning that BYD is the largest electric bus manufacturer in the world. The accumulated mileage operated by BYD eBUS vehicles was over 12 million kilometers (or 7.5 million miles) by the end of November 2012. In addition to pure electric buses, BYD is introducing its all-electric car e6 to the taxi and private hire market in Europe. In London, the UK’s capital’s principal operator of ‘green’ private hire vehicles, greentomatocars, has recently announced that it is to put 50 BYD e6 cars into service during 2013.
editor@chinabuses.org
86-10-84933192;
