From various media reports, BYD has unveiled a pure-electric school bus for the North American market with model A with 30 seats and support for bi-directional charging and discharging from the grid.
The vehicle is painted in black and yellow, inheriting the style of the local American school bus. BYD offers three body sizes 26.7 feet (8.1 meters), 24.5 feet (7.45 meters) and 22.9 feet (7 meters) to meet the different route requirements of the vast North American market.
According to the company, Type A buses can reduce fuel costs by up to 60% compared to diesel vehicles, and maintenance costs can be reduced by up to 60% because battery-electric buses have fewer movable parts and incur less wear and tear from vibrations on the road.
The battery is equipped with a lithium iron phosphate battery pack with a single range of 25km, and the vehicle also supports 150kW DC fast charging and 9.2kW single-phase AC charging, and has V2G(vehicle-to-grid) bi-directional charging capability.
What is V2G bi-directional charging?
A bidirectional charger is a sophisticated EV charger capable of both charging and discharging energy from an electric vehicle.
“Just like the Type-D school bus we unveiled last year, our Type-A school bus has bi-directional charging capability. The school bus can automatically recharge when energy demand is low, while clean energy can power classrooms when needed.” that said by Samuel Kang, Head of Technology Solutions, BYD.
BYD’s electric buses will be everywhere
BYD’s public transport business has gradually built up a reputation, and different countries have already chosen to use BYD’s electric buses, such as Mauritius, Finland, Colombia, Japan and so on, all over the world.
China has also taken the initiative by setting up the “first all-electric shuttle bus team in China” for the Shenzhen Airport in China.
