Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

Living in Shenzhen, it feels like probably 80% of the taxis are electric already. Due to government subsidy the blue electric BYD cabs are more spacious, cheaper (no 2元 fuel surcharge), newer and cleaner than the older red cabs, which are generally clunky dirty squashed VWs. However, the drivers pay more to buy them even with subsidy, and you need a conventional ICE vehicle to get out to the factories in Dongguan, or to cross the border to Hong Kong.

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#6

Post by helm33 » Thu, Dec 28, 2017, 9:34 PM UTC

Denver bought a bunch of electric busses from BYD for service on the 16th street mall. My understanding is BYD offered a 12 year warranty on the batteries, in order to make the economics work.

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#7

Post by olivermarks » Thu, Dec 28, 2017, 9:45 PM UTC

This is really impressive, I've been very skeptical of heavy payload capability and range for electric vehicles until now. Will be interesting to see how well they perform, how the charging infrastructure works and battery life

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#8

Post by nwah1 » Thu, Dec 28, 2017, 9:48 PM UTC

Is the grid in Shenzhen mostly coal-powered?

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#9

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Dec 28, 2017, 9:58 PM UTC

They're turning up in Edinburgh too: https://lothianbuses.co.uk/news/article/Lothian-introduce-th...

I suspect a lot of bus services around the world with emissions targets are phasing them in right now.

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#10

Post by dwyerm » Thu, Dec 28, 2017, 10:00 PM UTC

helm33 wrote: post #6

Denver bought a bunch of electric busses from BYD for service on the 16th street mall. My understanding is BYD offered a 12 year warranty on the batteries, in order to make the economics work.

I noticed RTD had new buses last time I was there. I recall that the original TransTeq EcoMark buses were very progressive for their time. If I remember the story correctly, RTD couldn't find a company that built the right bus for them, so they went off and more or less built their own. Then, over the next decade and a half, I began to see their distinctive low floors and warty roofs in cities and airports all over the nation.

I proud of my little city for leading the way, but I'm a little sad to see that TransTeq seems to have disappeared. For a while, it seemed like their ideas were taking over the world. But at least the technology advanced overall.

Anyway, my favorite part about the new BYD buses on the Mall is their noise. They have a speaker on the front that 'growls' so that the otherwise-quiet buses have a harder time sneaking up on pedestrians. New solutions to new problems!