In addition to the six battery powered buses launched in December last year, Australian bus manufacture and operator Carbridge will build a fleet of forty more EV Buses in partnership with Gemiland coachworks and BYD.
The contract was signed at the end of January, three months after the first BYD powered Electric Blu bus made its commercial debut at Sydney Airport.
BYD Asia Pacific auto sales division general manager Liu Xueliang says the organsation is proud to be supplying electric bus components to Carbridge for use at Sydney Airport.
"We are the first Chinese company to crack Australia’s electric bus market, having come a long way since the trial of our electric buses at the country’s busiest airport in Sydney in late 2014," he says.
The Electric Blu Toro buses, manufactured by a joint venture between BYD & Carbridge, feature custom Gemiland bus-bodies fabricated from aero-grade aluminium for significant weight reduction. The BYD chassis comprises a ZF front axle and a ZF clone rear axle featuring dual 90 kW / 350 Nm water cooled permanent magnet wheel-hub traction motors.
Energy storage is a 324 kWh BYD iron phosphate battery with the pack split between the forward roof and rear engine compartment zones connected in parallel for a bus voltage of 400 vdc.
The Electric Blu bus has a carrying capacity of 70 passengers with a range of 500 kilometres, making up to 100 transfer journeys on a single charge.
The fleet of six currently in operation at Sydney Airport is also estimated to lower carbon emissions by 160,000 kilograms a year, reduce waste fluids and noise levels.
