Latin America’s surge towards mass public transport electrification continues as it was announced that it is aiming to operate the largest electric bus fleet in the Americas and one of the largest in the world.
To help the country achieve this goal, electric vehicle manufacturer BYD has announced that it will supply the Colombian capital of Bogota with a fleet of 379 pure electric buses due to be in service by September 2020. The city of Medellin already has 64 electric buses in operation and with a total of 443 electric buses, Colombia will be a world leader in zero-emission public transportation.
It is estimated that in its first year of operation, this fleet will cancel out 21,900 tons of CO2 and 526 kilograms of PM 2.5 pollutant particles. It will also be 60% cheaper to operate these buses, compared to traditional diesel-powered buses.
The order of electric buses from in a deal awarded by Bogota’s TransMilenio SA mass transportation authority breaks the record for the largest order of electric buses in the Americas. BYD previously held this record when it supplied 183 buses to Chile in August 2019.
The buses will be manufactured entirely by BYD and operate in the Integrated Public Transportation System – SITP, with the towns of Usme and Fontibón to benefit from the new EVs first.
“With the arrival of zero emission electric buses to the SITP, we fulfilled a dream that this administration had proposed, and for which we worked hard, to give the city a better public transport service, with technology that’s both state-of-the-art and user-friendly,” said María Consuelo Araujo, general manager of TransMilenio SA.
