Electric Buses to Medellin; Medellin Living & PEi Power Engineering International

BYD to deliver electric bus fleet to Colombia

01/04/2019

By Kelvin Ross 
Editor

         

Chinese battery company BYD has won a contract to provide the Colombian city of Medellin with 64 electric buses – the largest all-electric bus fleet in the country and the second-largest in Latin America.

BYD’s 12.5-metre K9G pure electric buses will be delivered to local operator Metroplus in the second half of this year.

Medellin Mayor Federico Gutiérrez said the deal would turn the city into “the capital of electric mobility in Latin America” and added that the city was “working to battle climate change".

The fleet of buses will be able to cover more than 300 km daily, with a capacity of 80 passengers. They will require less than two hours of recharging each day, and there will be charging points in different areas of the city to support their operations.

Metroplus bought the city's first 18-metre pure electric articulated bus, BYD K11, in 2017. Since then the bus has covered more than 50,000 km, saved 60 per cent cost savings and a 75 per cent saving in maintenance compared to a standard diesel-powered bus.