BYD Motors has introduced America’s first electric articulated bus at the 2014 American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Expo in Houston.
The bus is named, Lancaster after the city in California where it was designed and manufactured.
BYD Motors is an American manufacturing company residing in an industrial zone in the city of Lancaster and they have now hired over 60 Americans to build clean-tech Electric Buses and Energy Modules out of Lancaster, California, announced, Marvin Crist, Vice Mayor, Lancaster.
The Lancaster eBus is a 60-foot, articulated battery-electric bus, which can be driven 170+ miles and carry 120 passengers. It has been in development stage for last two years.
The foundation of BYD’s Electric buses is the BYD Iron-Phosphate Battery with fire-safe, recyclable, and long-cycle technology. These buses run entirely off battery power up to 24 hours on a single charge, with single off-peak charging time of 2-4 hours.
As the grid is only 40 percent utilized, there is no additional generation capacity needed to be built to charge the buses at night. The mission of BYD is to create safer and more environmentally-friendly battery technologies.
In addition, Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) has displayed a 40-foot, Battery-electric Transit bus.
The 40-foot drove over 1500 zero-emission miles from Los Angeles all the way to Houston for the Expo under its own power, boasted, Norm Hickling, chairman, AVTA Board.
AVTA tested BYD buses in the hottest part of the Lancaster summer, with full air-conditioning running and with 5250 pounds of sand bags to simulate a full passenger load.
The bus drove nearly 100 miles more than BYD advertises, up to 250 miles per bus charge and covered almost 750 miles in 24 hours. The technology and quality offered by BYD is excellent. In addition, the1500 mile journey to Texas was completed in just $200 in electricity.
Rajani Baburajan
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