Transdev launches a 406-units e-bus fleet in Bogota (Colombia): local bodywork on BYD chassis, for the first time
Transdev inaugurates 406 new electric buses in the city of Bogota, enabling the city to maintain the largest electric bus fleet in Latin America, adding to an existing fleet of 1,061 electric buses. The buses are operated by the Fanalca-Transdev joint venture through its company GREEN MOVIL. Directly related to the project, is the installation […]
Transdev inaugurates 406 new electric buses in the city of Bogota, enabling the city to maintain the largest electric bus fleet in Latin America, adding to an existing fleet of 1,061 electric buses.
The buses are operated by the Fanalca-Transdev joint venture through its company GREEN MOVIL.
Directly related to the project, is the installation of a 40,000m2 bus depot from which the new buses will depart, the largest electric depot in the world outside of China.
BYD e-buses with local bodywork (a first!)
The order was awarded to BYD in January 2021. In that occasion it was mentioned that BYD was set to co-work with Superpolo, a Colombian bus manufacturer, on the body part of the buses for such order, marking a first in Latin America, where until now the Chinese manufacturer has delivered complete buses.
On December 17 2020, BYD had announced the delivery of the first 120 out of a 470 e-bus order in the same city. The vehicles are charged with Enel X infrastructures. The order was signed in November 2019.
Green Movil operates over 1,000 e-buses in Bogota
The electric fleet consists of 271 midi buses with a capacity of 50 passengers and 135 vehicles with a capacity of 80 passengers. The beginning of service will be phased in gradually, with the 213 buses that arrived on Saturday, April 2 and 193 buses arriving on April 23, Transdev says.
The announcement of the arrival of the new Green Movil fleet was made by Bogota Mayor Claudia López, the Transport Secretary, Felipe Ramírez, and the Director of TransMilenio, Álvaro Rengifo.
The 406 buses will run on 14 different routes to serve the neighborhoods of Fontibón, Usme, Ciudad Bolívar, Usaquén, San Cristóbal, Chapinero, Teusaquillo and Kennedy.
The « Green Móvil Logistic Center » is located in the neighborhood of Las Brisas, in the district of Fontibón, next to the Bogota International Airport. It has an electrical power of 20 megawatts and has the largest capacity of its kind for bus transportation in Bogota and Colombia, and more generally in the world outside China.
The largest electric bus fleet in Latin America
Transdev points out that the new vehicles are equipped with technological elements to improve customer travel experience: on-board cameras, USB ports for charging cell phones, GPS, information panels, speakers and microphones that communicate directly with the control center, plus permanent transmission of operational data. As well as wheelchair accessible platforms, start and hill climbing assistance, rapid energy recharging process and automatic fire control.
«The continued integration of the electric fleet into Bogota’s transportation system reinforces our goal of improving service to users, our purpose. We will be able to increase frequencies, reduce noise, improve air quality for passengers and the community in general. We are putting the best technology currently available in the market at the service of citizens, » said Álvaro José Rengifo, Director of TransMilenio.
Rengifo also explained that, «in addition to the benefits for users, the entry into service of this new fleet has generated more than 1,100 direct jobs through the Green Movil concessionary».
«Perhaps the best way to honor the memory of our children, those in heaven and those here, is to continue working for the City of Bogota that they deserve. A clean, green, sustainable, inclusive Bogota, a Bogota that gets better every day for everyone» said Mayor Claudia Lopez.
