The BYD K9 (sometimes just referred to as the BYD ebus or BYD electric bus) is a battery electric bus manufactured by Chinese automaker BYD Auto, powered with its self-developed lithium iron phosphate battery, featuring the longest drive range of 250 km (155 miles) on one single charge under urban road conditions.
The first BYD battery electric bus was manufactured on September 30, 2010 in Changsha city of Hunan province. It followed models like F3DM, F6DM and e6. K9 has a 12-meter body length and 18-ton weight with one-step low-floor interior. It is reportedly priced at 2–3 million yuan (S$395,000 - S$592,600). It has been running and/or tested in China, India, Japan, Hong Kong, U.S., Colombia, Chile, Spain, Netherlands and Denmark. More than 200 K9s in service in Shenzhen had accumulated over 9,216,000 km (or 5,529,600 miles) by the end of August, 2012.
In both 2011 and 2012, BYD obtained orders from amounting to 1200+ units. The company extended its production base in Tianjin, China at the end of July, 2012 and may plan to manufacture in Brazil and Windsor, Canada. BYD built and operates an electric bus factory in Lancaster, California, US. The new factory started production in October, 2013. In December 2014, another manufacturing plant began operation in Dalian, Liaoning, China.
BYD's official specs publication on its electric bus includes:
Electric power consumption: less than 100kWh/60mins
Acceleration: 0–50 km/h in 20s
Top speed: 96 km/h
Normal charge: 6h for full charge
Fast charge: 3h for full charge
Overnight charging: 60 kW maximum power for 5h full charge
Range: 155 miles (249 km) (186 miles (299 km) according to some reports)
Length*Width*Height: 12,000mm*2,550mm*3,200mm
Standard seats: 31+1 (31 for passengers and 1 for driver)
Weight: 18,000 kg
Clearance between one-step entry and ground: 360mm
Two or more versions of this bus have been exposed. The two-door version is in service in China's Shenzhen, Changsha, Xi'an and Shaoguan while the 3-door version operates in Shenzhen, Bogota etc. for test and demonstration purposes.
Battery and powertrain
K9 is powered by LiFePO4 batteries, which have been applied to BYD e6, BYD DESS and other energy storage products. BYD claims that the chemical materials contained in the battery can be recycled without any toxins. K9's power system uses an in-wheel motor drive and hub reductor. The max power output is 90 kW*2 and the max torque is 550Nm*2. Solar panels fixed on the vehicle were once reported to supplement the onboard batteries. They were included on demo units, but not on commercial units.
Safety features include unitary construction body, 4-wheel disc brakes, ABS+ASR, one-step easy-pass with special footplates for wheelchair access and non-step inside.
Body and interior design
The body comes silver, yellow or green (for different markets). In the silver version the front windscreen occupies two-thirds of the front of the bus for maximum visibility. It includes adjustable leather seating for driver and red and black leather seats for passengers. The battery packs are laid in the vehicle rear on both sides inside the two cabins.
BYD calculates that a BYD ebus over 8 years saves about $190,000 in energy costs. In 2012, the price for a BYD ebus was 380,000 Euros, 100,000 more than a comparable diesel bus.
At a press conference in Beijing on November 4, 2012, BYD announced "Zero vehicle purchase price, Zero costs, Zero emissions", to promote the sale of its e6 and K9. The initiative is supported financially by China Development Bank from a fund totalling over 30 Billion RMB ($4.6B USD), and allows buyers to finance 100% of the purchase price with no down payment, paying a lease rate that effectively costs less than regular monthly operational expenses.
Under the scheme, available in China, public transport operators can choose the ownership model from three different options:
The company explained the concept of "Zero Costs" by comparing difference between the five-year cost of running a conventional taxi in Shenzhen, as against its all-electric cab. It came to the conclusion that "if the car runs for 5 years, and the total saving over 5 years is deducted from the higher cost of the vehicle and the interest on multiple payments, it can save 326,400 RMB. The company also claimed that if enough distance is covered, "the vehicle payment will be entirely offset". BYD also promoted the "Zero Emission" feature of its renewable-energy vehicles by stating that "an e6 electric taxi saves 14,120 litres of fuel per year, with 32 tonnes fewer CO2 emissions", and "169 million litres of fuel could be saved with CO2 emissions reduced by 38.62 million tonnes per year" if all Chinese taxis were to be replaced with its electric vehicles.
In 2015, BYD sold about 6,000 of these buses worldwide. BYD became the world leader in the sale of electric vehicles in 2015.
Mainland China
200 units were delivered to the Shenzhen public transmit system to serve the Universiade 2011 in August, 2011 and remained as part of this city's transport system. This (world's largest) electric bus fleet had reportedly accumulated over 9,216,000 km (or 5,529,600 miles) by the end of August, 2012. By 2017 the fleet had increased to 780, covering more than 106,000,000 km (66,000,000 mi).
2 buses began trial service in Changsha 100 more were expected to begin service there in 2012. BYD's Changsha facility was to produce 20,000 passenger vehicles and 400 pure electric buses, increasing to 3,000 electric buses and 100,000 passenger vehicles in 2013.
3 K9s began service in Shaoguan, Guangdong province in November 3, 2011.
4 K8s began service in Xi'an in August 2012 with another 46 units expected to join them around the end of 2012.
Haikou City began testing K9s in August 2011.
In July 2012 BYD and Tianjin Public Transportation Group Ltd agreed to set up a joint venture to produce new energy vehicles. It became the company's second K9 production site in mainland China.
The largest K9 fleet since 2014 was in Dalian, 600 units. A further 600 vehicles was planned to arrive in 2015.
In May 2014 BYD announced an order of 2000 ebuses and 1000 eTaxis for Hangzhou. As of 2014 China about 500,000 conventional city buses were in daily use. BYD sold in 2014 in the first quarter more than 4,000 vehicles, while sales of former market leader Daimler dropped by 20% in 2013.
BYD announced its bus in the US at the 16th BUSCON in Chicago on September 13, 2011. BYD supplied one K9 bus to be retrofitted with WAVE’s wireless charging pad under the bus, developed by the Utah State University Energy Dynamics Laboratory in 2012.
The city of Windsor, Ontario signed a letter of intent to order as many as 10 BYD electric buses in May, 2012.
Aruba plans to use BYD by 2020. The country signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BYD to place four BYD buses and one e6 electric taxi for public/government use, to be in service by the end of September 2013.
The Regional Transportation District in Denver, Colorado ordered 36 BYD buses for use on their Downtown Mall Shuttle.
On June 20, 2012, BYD and Chilean collaborator INDUMOTORA Company secured a contract with ALSACIA, one of the biggest operators in Santiago's public transport system, for 5 K9 units.
BYD scheduled a large commercial operation of its K9 in Brazil and set up a bus production factory there which, however, is not certified by BYD. The mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil confirmed plan to introduce at least 5 BYD electric buses to Sao Paulo by the end of 2012.
At the beginning of 2012, BYD and Buquebus officials signed a contract to begin importing 500 buses into Uruguay. According to Bernama, the first buses would arrive in Uruguay before during 2012 with 500 buses running by 2015.
BYD entered a fuel-efficiency testing program in Colombia run by the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) and InterAmerican Development Bank (IADB). Running against diesel and CNG-hybrid buses on a 12-mile route that took between 60 and 90 minutes to complete, BYD won by achieving a 7.3 km/liter-equivalent by measuring costs and 11 km/liter-equivalent measuring by energy output. Peru has also tested BYD's electric bus. A fleet of 12-meter 80-passenger units was to be delivered to Bogotá for trial operation as of Q2 2013. The first one-month stage of this project was to focus on testing the fleet on operational performance, energy consumption, battery behavior and total energy consumption.
Hong Kong: In July, 2011, the BYD Hong Kong Research and Development Center opened with a group of six engineers, in cooperation with its existing development team. The Kowloon Motor Bus fleet reportedly ordered 10 buses from BYD. The first unit arrived in September 2012. The public transit service planned to test the units on three transmit lines. The Kowloon Motor Bus BYD bus was eventually returned to BYD. Citybus ordered 5 BYD Electric buses from BYD Auto of China.
India: In December 2013, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation planned to start a three-month test of a K9.
Malaysia: In February 2014, BYD won the bid to supply 15 buses to Rapid Bus, a Prasarana Malaysia subsidiary. Rapid Bus will be using the 15 electric buses as shuttle buses on Kuala Lumpur's first BRT line on elevated guideway exclusively for electric buses namely BRT Sunway Line.
Philippines: In 2016 BYD Auto announced the sells of its ten electric buses to the Philippines. It would be the first Chinese auto industry entry into the Filipino growing market. The electric buses would be part of the Point to Point (P2P) bus service programme.
Japan: In February 2015, Kyotokyukou Bus Inc. of Kyoto, Japan, took delivery of five BYD electric buses, making BYD the first Chinese auto company to enter the Japanese market.
Singapore:
SMRT Corporation Ltd, Singapore's premier multi-modal transport service provider signed an MOU in June 2011 with BYD to consider a joint venture to distribute BYD’s electric buses and e6 taxis in Singapore.
Go-Ahead Singapore, under the Go-Ahead Group of the United Kingdom, together with Land Transport Authority delivered its first fully electric bus. It will undergo vigorous testing and be put to service for trial runs for six months. The bus made its first debut on 7 November 2016 on Service 17.
NZ Bus is trialling a BYD eBus for up to three months in Auckland and Wellington from February 2017.
In August 2012, a contract for 700 electric bus delivery was completed between BYD and Israeli transit company Dan Bus. The first buses were expected to be deployed in 2012. Based on the market price of 2.1 million yuan (USD330,000), the contract is estimated to be worth 1.5 billion yuan (USD236.65 million). The contract was BYD’s largest order to date from a public transport operator outside of China.
BYD electric bus has been tested in European countries including Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Spain and Denmark in cities such as Bremen and Bonn, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Madrid, Barcelona and Warsaw.
Finland: on March 12, 2012, BYD and a Finland-based transportation company, Veolia Transport Finland Oy, reached an agreement for K9s for the Finnish capital city Helsinki. BYD’s K9 buses were to undergo a three-year performance test under Finland's conditions of extreme cold.
Spain: A successful two-week road test of BYD electric bus was conducted by the two main Spanish municipal public transportation companies: EMT (Madrid) and TMB (Barcelona).
Germany: BYD signed a letter of intent with Frankfurt, Germany to supply three K9s and two charging stations by the end of the first quarter of 2012. The buses were to serve as shuttles at Frankfurt Airport and along public transportation routes.
Netherlands: the island of Schiermonnikoog in the province of Friesland introduced six new, long-range, K9s in April 2013 after BYD scored the highest in meeting program goals and won an order for the six buses and a 15-year maintenance contract from a European open bid supported by four major bus manufacturers.
Poland: In 2013 the capital city of Poland, Warszawa (Warsaw), tested K-9. BYD claims about 3 hours of charging time were not confirmed: the minimum was over 5 hours. 250 km range was found, less than the required 350 km.
United Kingdom: In 2013 two units began operating on two central London routes; said to be the capital's first fully electric buses. Transport for London planned to purchase six more BYD buses in 2014. In July 2015, Go-Ahead London confirmed they would order 51 BYD electric buses with Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC bodywork. In March 2016, the first of a fleet of 5 double decker electric buses was launched by Metroline with an extended range of 190 miles.
