On December 17, BYD announced the delivery of 470 pure electric buses to Bogota, the capital of Colombia. This is the country’s largest pure electric bus fleet, and also the largest bus fleet BYD has delivered in the Americas. The vehicles are charged with Enel X infrastructures. The order was signed in November 2019.

BYD and Enel X are among the group of 17 bus manufacturers and investors that signed a pledge to accelerate e-bus deployment in Latin America with the Zero Emission Bus Rapid-deployment Accelerator (ZEBRA) alliance.

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BYD electric buses in Bogota

The Bogota City Government and the Bogota City Public Transport Authority (Transmilenio S.A) held a grand launch and delivery ceremony for the first batch of 120 buses. This batch of buses will be delivered to 9 bus routes across the city by Transmilenio S.A on December 26, 2020, and will serve approximately 69,300 passengers along the routes, BYD points out. The remaining 350 units will be put on the other 30 routes during the first quarter of 2021, by which time a total of 302,000 passengers can enjoy the zero-emission bus service.

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New e-buses and financing for electric buses in Latin America

A few days ago the ZEBRA alliance unveiled a coalition of 17 new investors and bus manufacturers that commit to bringing new products and financing to expand the zero-emission bus fleet in Latin America over the next 12 months and beyond. This international alliance is working to secure USD1 billion in investments to deploy over 3,000 electric buses onto the streets of Latin America.

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The ZEBRA Alliance is a partnership led by the C40 Cities network and the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), with funding from P4G. Participants to this commitment include vehicle manufacturers and distributors Andes Motor, BYD, CreattiEV SAS, Foton, Higer, Sunwin, Vivipra, and Yutong; as well as investors AMP Capital, ARC Global Fund, Ascendal, Ashmore Management Company, EDP Brasil, Enel X, John Laing, NEoT, and financier BNDES, the Brazilian Development Bank. 

In the four key cities where ZEBRA partners are most active, transport is responsible for a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions: 71% in Mexico City, 43% in Medellín, 79% in Santiago, and 61% in São Paulo, all of which heavily rely on outdated diesel bus technology for public transport. 

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Highlights

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