Electric buses not working properly in Los Angeles

[snoggle]

Looks like BYD have run into enormous problems with their electric buses in Los Angeles.

www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-electric-buses-20180520-story.html

Very interesting article given it hints at borderline corruption / bribery in BYD's approach to public officials and the way they expect those officials to defend BYD when problems arise. There's an interesting reference to the Los Angeles buses being used on "hills that were too steep". The buses also never meet the advertised range for mileage between charges and there have been problems with bodywork cracks and binding brakes.


One wonders whether the vehicles deployed in London suffer any of the same reliability issues. I also wonder just how much lobbying BYD has done with City Hall, TfL and London bus operators. The double irony is that the info has to be released in America but would never be released here.

[redexpress]

May 23, 2018 11:31:30 GMT snoggle said:

Looks like BYD have run into enormous problems with their electric buses in Los Angeles.

www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-electric-buses-20180520-story.html

Very interesting article given it hints at borderline corruption / bribery in BYD's approach to public officials and the way they expect those officials to defend BYD when problems arise. There's an interesting reference to the Los Angeles buses being used on "hills that were too steep". The buses also never meet the advertised range for mileage between charges and there have been problems with bodywork cracks and binding brakes.


One wonders whether the vehicles deployed in London suffer any of the same reliability issues. I also wonder just how much lobbying BYD has done with City Hall, TfL and London bus operators. The double irony is that the info has to be released in America but would never be released here.

Interesting stuff.  BYD's success in London is certainly eye-catching in that they have so far secured virtually every major electric bus order (barring a small number of Optares).  I'd certainly hope that this is purely down to the quality of the product rather than the quality of their lobbying!

So far the BYDs in London seem to be performing quite well.  The 153 and 360 don't have a particularly generous allocation - just 1 spare for the 153 and 2 spares for the 360 - yet they seem to manage without the need for any diesel substitutes, although I see that the BYD demonstrator EB3 is back in use on the 153, and the Streetlite demonstrator sees occasional use on the 360.  Of course neither route is hilly.  Perhaps the 46 will be a bit more of a test.  It's noticeable that Metroline have ordered a much higher percentage of spares (23 buses for a PVR of 19).