Meanwhile, the city of Mendoza in the Andean foothills also has 18 BYD buses currently running, all of which were purchased by the local government at a cost of US$400,000 each. The initial plan sought to double the quantity, but authorities downscaled plans due to the economic crisis.
Mariano Jimena, head of the Argentine Association of Electric Vehicles, said the role of electric buses in the country is still limited. But he highlighted legislative steps taken in the past few years. “We are on a path for Argentina to change its bus fleet towards electric vehicles. It will take time but the process has already started.”
Mexico: Trolleybuses roll
The first week of January this year, 63 trolleybuses made by Yutong began circulating in Mexico City along Eje Central, one of the city’s main streets. This comes as part of the project “Trolebici” which includes bicycle lanes, public bicycles for rent and the new trolleybuses, which involved investment of around US $35 million.
“We are aiming for a cleaner public transport to reduce air pollution,” Claudia Sheimbaum, Mayor of Mexico City said in a press conference.
The trolleybuses, which have zero emissions, are powered by dual overhead wires and have a battery that enables them to run independent of wires for up to 70 kilometres. The new models consume less electricity than previous ones, have obstacle detectors and special alarms that alert drivers to cyclists. The last time Mexico City renewed its trolleybuses was 22 years ago, according to the general director of the Mexico City Electric Transport Service, Guillermo Calderón.
Ren Wenhui, commercial manager of Yutong in Mexico, said Mexico City is the first to use the company's trolleybuses in Latin America, although its electric and gas buses already run on the streets of Aguascalientes in central Mexico.
Mexico City was declared the most polluted city in the world by the UN in 1992 and has since implemented a series of mitigation measures, achieving a 7.7m tonne reduction in carbon emissions between 2008 and 2012. However transport still generates 45% of the city’s emissions and air quality has been dropped in past years. Although the move towards cleaner energy would undoubtedly help, Rodrigo Diaz, Mexico City’s undersecretary of mobility planning, said there isn’t a viable financial model to purchase electric buses at a larger scale at the moment.
Brazil: still catching up
Over 390,000 buses circulate across Brazil, but a meager 247 are electric. Only eight cities in Brazil have electric buses, with only a handful in each. Even cities that have been most enthusiastic about electrification, such as São Paulo, where a recent law established a goal of zero pollutants from transport within 20 years, have been slow to grow fleets.
For decades, São Paulo has had 200 electric trolley buses as part of its fleet, but the promised substitution of diesel buses for electric ones has been slow. It has only purchased 15 so far.
Adalberto Maluf of BYD admits the country has been slow to grow its green bus fleet. But, he argues, the growth in sales of electric garbage trucks and hybrid electric cars is cause for celebration. “Slowly some niche markets are consolidating,” he says. “It took us almost ten years to sell 11,000 hybrid electric cars, from 2009 to 2018, but in 2019 alone, we sold 12,000. This shows the market is ready.”
However, the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed the boom. Factories were forced to close and stop production, and hopes that Brazil would sell 27,000 hybrid cars this year have faded. Still, Maluf says the future is bright, and says BYD has plans to sell hundreds of buses to São Paulo, Campinas and even Salvador, a city in northeastern Brazil that still has no electric buses.
Guayaquil: one private operator with e-buses
Ecuador’s largest cities have also debuted electric fleets, albeit different types. Largest city Guayaquil went for ordinary buses, while the capital Quito opted for 85 trolleybuses.
In the port city of Guayaquil, 20 BYD buses began rolling in mid-2019, as part of an initiative led by one of the city’s private transport operators. Saucinc, a small company operating one route, went to the national government for help in replacing its fleet of diesel-powered buses. Their first major challenge was building new charging points.
Pilot projects
A number of other cities also have buses on test runs, with single BYD buses in the Peruvian cities of Lima and Arequipa. Last year, Asunción in Paraguay introduced its first two Zhongtang buses and Panama City started a pilot plan with two BYD vehicles.
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