Source: Guangzhou Daily 2013-03-20 Page AII07
Written by: Xu Jing
Translated by: Zhang Saijia

Yesterday, the reporter learned from Sun Yat-sen University that 40 pure electric medium-sized buses developed by SYSU Dongguan Research Institute will hit the road for trial run at the end of the month. The electric medium-sized buses adopt the lightweight design of “vehicle adapting to battery” whose price is only about half the market price of similar products, and whose energy consumption is half of that of similar products.

The reporter saw in SYSU Dongguan Research Institute that these medium-sized buses have similar appearance to that of regular medium-sized buses in the market, but its biggest characteristic is light in weight. Zong Zhijian, Executive Deputy Director of SYSU Dongguan Research Institute, told the reporter that the lightweight pure electric medium-sized buses adopt the newly developed lightweight bus platform with 2.3t of curb weight. The passenger capacity is between 18 and 21 people. As tested, under the condition of full-load without air condition, the energy consumption per one hundred kilometers is less than 20kwh with a driving range of nearly 180km. The market price of such buses can be controlled to be around 400,000 yuan.

Nowadays, most of the regular pure electric medium-sized buses in the market are adapted from the fuel medium-sized buses of the same type with a curb weight of around 5t after adaptation. Under the condition of full-load without air condition, the energy consumption for one kilometer is around 40kwh with a driving range of nearly 180km. The market price of such buses is mostly about 800,000 yuan. That is to say, the electric medium-sized buses developed by SYSU have an energy consumption which is less than half of that of similar products. Although the weight of the buses is reduced, they have passed the national safety test.