Golden Arrow readies first electric BYD busses for February deployment
Cape Town’s Golden Arrow Bus Services (GABS) is readying the first of its newly acquired BYD fully electric buses for deployment in February.
“The plan is to have close to 20 on the road before the end of February, to stay close to our plan of introducing ten per month for 2025,” says company engineer Gideon Neethling.
GABS last year signed a deal to acquire 120 electric buses from Chinese automotive powerhouse BYD, following a four-year testing period.
The people carriers are BYD B12 buses, with similar specifications to the bulk of the current Golden Arrow fleet.
The 12.5-m-long, 65-seater electric buses are all equipped with lithium-iron-phosphate batteries.
GABS started testing BYD electric buses in 2020, introducing two buses to its commuter service in 2021.
A third and a fourth bus entered testing in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Neethling told Engineering News Online last year that GABS opted for the BYD product as the auto maker is a global market leader “with a really good track record” with electric vehicles and battery development.
“The buses are also energy efficient and they come at a reasonable capital cost.”
The range on the buses is just over 200 km.
GABS has a total bus fleet of 1 200 buses, which means the BYD order electrifies close to 10% of its fleet.
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