USA BYD unveiled a 60-foot long articulated battery-electric bus at the 2014 American Public Transportation Association (APTA) exhibition in Houston. Called the Lancaster eBus after the city in California where it was designed and manufactured, it can drive more than 170 miles with a load of up to 120 passengers.
Lancaster Vice Mayor Marvin Crist said: “BYD Motors is an American manufacturing company residing in an industrial zone in the city of Lancaster – they have now hired over 60 Americans to build clean-tech electric buses and energy modules out of Lancaster, California.
Said BYD Motors Fleet Sales Vice President, Brendan Riley: “BYD’s mission is to create safer and more environmentally-friendly battery technologies. This has resulted in the BYD Iron-Phosphate battery, a fire-safe, completely recyclable, and incredibly long-cycle technology. These buses run entirely off battery power lasting up to 24 hours on a single charge, with single off-peak charging time of two to four hours. No additional generation capacity is needed to be built to charge our buses at night since the grid is only 40% utilised.”
