BUSWAYS has commenced it’s very first trial of an electric bus in regional NSW on March 1 here in Coffs Harbour.

The trial will run for three weeks with the bus being used on both school and route services to test the vehicle and charging technology in a regional environment.

The bus has a 374kwh battery capacity which gives it a range of up to 400km on a single charge and delivers zero emissions from its operation.

Busways Special Projects Manager Tim Reid told News Of The Area, “This trial will give us information that we will use to plan future rollouts of electric buses across the state.

“Some of the challenges that we are investigating include just how much power will we need to charge the vehicles, what infrastructure will we need to install in depots to make it work and just how will regional operation differ from that in the big cities.”

The Yutong E12 series bus uses advanced technologies including regenerative braking which helps extend the vehicles range by returning power to the batteries when braking, a technique that requires drivers to modify their driving style slightly to fully exploit.

The bus can be recharged in three hours and has real time monitoring of power levels to ensure reliability of service, in eighteen months of service in Sydney no electric buses have yet run out of charge.

The vehicle has wheelchair access via a ramp and two wheelchair bays with back stops and safety belts, is air-conditioned and accelerates smoothly and quickly, and is extremely quiet inside with no engine sounds either inside or out.

Busways advised that the fare for the electric vehicle will be the same as currently charged for their regular fleet.

 

By David TUNE