HONG KONG
Alexander Dennis has delivered the first next-generation Enviro500EV zero-emission double-deck buses to the Kowloon Motor Bus Company (KMB) in time for the operator’s celebration of its 90th birthday. KMB was founded in April 1933 as the Hong Kong Government introduced a system of exclusive services for the city’s bus network that continues today, with KMB running on over 400 routes covering Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories as the city’s largest franchised bus operator.
As it celebrates its 9th decade, the operator says it is looking firmly to the future with the unveiling of its first Alexander Dennis Enviro500EV electric double-decker, finished in a vivid green that KMB has adopted for these buses under a ‘Green is Good’ slogan.
Alexander Dennis President & Managing Director Paul Davies commented: “Happy birthday to KMB, which has been Hong Kong’s ‘Heartbeat of the City’ for 90 years. We are very proud to be a long-standing business partner of KMB and this is yet another milestone in our relationship as our all-new Enviro500EV joins over 2,500 existing Alexander Dennis double-deckers in the KMB fleet, giving the operator an electric double-deck product that is superior to competitor products.”
The Enviro500EV is ADL’s newly-developed, integral battery-electric double-decker which utilises the heavy-duty variant of the efficient Voith Electrical Drive System, giving it a peak power output of 410kW which makes it suitable for the high and low-speed duty cycles and topographical challenges of Hong Kong. It combines this with 472kWh batteries that are assembled by Impact Clean Power Technology to a future-proof Alexander Dennis proprietary design. In KMB’s specification, the Enviro500EV seats 82 passengers and has room for two wheelchair users.
Alexander Dennis and its predecessors have been supplying buses to Hong Kong since the 1920s.
