First pure-electric double-decker bus premieres in London

Chinese President Xi Jinping, BYD’s Founder and Chairman Wang Chuanfu, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, boarded the first bus pure-electric, double-decker in its world premiere in London. The bus was designed and built by BYD and will be in revenue service soon on London streets.

The new bus emits no pollution and was developed after the Mayor of London challenged Mr. Wang and BYD to develop a vehicle which many experts said was not technically feasible – an electric double-decker bus.

The new double-decker bus can carry 81 passengers and is fully air-conditioned. It will be able to complete up to 190 miles in city traffic conditions on a single charge, allowing recharging (which takes just four hours) using lower-cost, off-peak electricity.

Also present at the ceremony at London’s Lancaster House was Colin Robertson, CEO of Alexander Dennis Ltd (ADL). BYD and ADL announced a partnership to build buses together which has the potential to generate EUR2 billion sales for the two companies in the next 10 years.

London has a 9,000-strong bus fleet carrying 6.5 million passengers a day, more demanding than Paris and New York combined. Two BYD single-decker, electric Transit buses have been in successful trials with Go-Ahead on two TFL routes for almost two years and recently BYD secured an order for a further 51 electric buses for operation by Go-Ahead.

The order marks the first stage of a partnership between BYD and Alexander Dennis Ltd (ADL) –BYD providing its battery and electric chassis and power-train technology and ADL, its strong experience in bus bodybuilding – with final assembly of the complete buses being carried out at its Falkirk, Scotland plant.