FRANCE A new exterior appearance for its ebus range of pure electric buses has been unveiled by BYD at the Transports Publics show in Paris. The new look will be the standard for all models including the Midibus revealed at Busworld, Kortrijk last year. An 18m artic ebus with the new frontal appearance is expected to be unveiled later this year.
The BYD 12m ebus on the stand at the show has a number of features that will also be common to future models, including no batteries in the passenger saloon, a new ergonomic driver’s compartment and LED lighting.
BYD, which attended the show for the third time, said it was demonstrating its commitment to the French bus market. The new BYD assembly plant in Beauvais north of Paris is expected to start operation in the second half of this year. It is the second bus assembly plant for BYD in Europe, after the facility in Komarom, northern Hungary.
The Beauvais project calls for around 100 jobs to be created in the initial phase. The production facility will occupy 32,000m2 of a site covering nearly 80,000m2 and will assemble up to 200 vehicles a year – single-deck buses and coaches in its first phase. Other vehicles may be added as production is expanded. In addition to bus assembly, BYD plans an after-sales unit for maintenance and repairs, as well as a logistics centre for spare parts. In the longer term, a test centre for batteries may be added.
“France is now clearly established as one of BYD’s ‘home markets’ and the new Beauvais facility will enable locally-built buses tailored to meet local expectations to be offered to French customers in the near future”, said Isbrand Ho, Managing Director of BYD Europe.
