London drops the veil on electric double-deckers, will hit roads in April
Transport for London (TfL), the city's transit authority, on Thursday unveiled its new double-decker bus, built by Chinese auto manufacturer BYD. Each bus costs around ?350,000 (that's about a half-million US dollars), and TfL claims it's the first fully electric, double-decker bus in the world. They'll start hitting the road in April.
"For a bus, the largest part of the cost is actually the fuel, so over the long term electric vehicles can give a big cost saving effect," BYD Europe Managing Director Isbrand Ho told the Guardian last year.
It's a much more conservative design than the new Routemaster, launched with much fanfare in 2010, which harked back to the old hop-on, hop-off buses.
This isn't London's first foray into electrified public transport. One whole single-decker bus route is already fully electric, and with both old and new combined, London will be operating 74 electric buses by year's end.
It's a good step towards a zero-emissions transit fleet, but there's still plenty of work to be done. A majority of London's buses will still be diesels, and even with the most modern pollution protections, emissions will remain a chief concern for those living in and commuting through London.
Комментарии