E-buses to roll on Kerala roads
Photo courtesy: Syed Shiyaz Mirza
The first electric bus of KSRTC will be launched on 18th June 2018. The trial run will be at Trivandrum for 15 days. Later it will be extended to Kochi and Calicut. Gold Stone Infratech Ltd, Secunderabad is the manufactures of the bus. Their BYD K9 model of the e-bus is opted by KSRTC. It is a 40 seater bus with modern amenities like CCTV camera, GPS and other entertainment facilities.
These buses have already been in the fleet of Andhara Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana public transports. Buses are manufactured with the technological knowhow of Chinese motor manufacturers – BYD. Design of these eco-friendly buses are in line with the topographical diversity of India, claims the manufacturers.
80 Kilometer per hour is the maximum speed of the bus. In order to have prolonged use, highly advanced lithium iron phosphate batteries are used in the bus. It is supposed run a distance of 250 Km, per charge. It will take just 3-4 hours to full charge the battery.