The delivery of three 12m BYD ebuses to the municipality of Novara, close to Turin, means that the two cities now have 23 emission free full size buses in service, the largest such fleet in Italy.
The new buses can deliver a full day of operation without the need for recharging — a BYD strength which is winning its customers across Europe.
The new electric buses were presented yesterday to the Mayor of Novara, Alessandro Canelli, and the Director of the operator SUN, Marzio Liuni, by Isbrand Ho, managing director of BYD Europe. The purchase process began in 2014 when the Piedmont Region decided to allocate resources from the Ministry of the Environment for air quality improvement through the purchase of electrically powered buses.
SUN and GTT of Turin joined this program by allocating the necessary funds for the co-participation in the purchase of the vehicles — 20 units destined for GTT of Turin and 3 units for SUN of Novara.
Isbrand Ho said: “Thanks to the vision of Piedmont Region, and of foresight of those who wanted to believe before others in the future of the full size pure electric bus, the citizens of Novara can begin to breathe cleaner air – a process which will hopefully accelerate as the city switches on new electric buses and switches off the old polluting diesel model”.
He added: “BYD is building its foundation in Europe with Europe’s largest fleet of electric buses having completed one million kilometers of zero pollution operation in London, the largest fleet of electric buses at a major international airport now over two years old at Schiphol Amsterdam and operators from the north of Sweden to Israel amongst our trusted customers”.
The BYD ebuses can carry 83 passengers, of whom 22 are seated, with space for a wheelchair. Because the buses do not have internal combustion petrol engines they are very quiet and below the noise threshold typical of urban environments. For this reason they are equipped with a horn to signal the presence of the vehicle to pedestrians and cyclists.
The bus livery was created by the students of the School of Painting of the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, which, coordinated by the teacher Giuseppe Leonardi, have worked in synergy with the Region creating a graphic design which reflects the spirit of the initiative.
