Wednesday 5 January 2011

Is Hyundai the stock to chase for Electric Buses?

There are several companies globally who have dipped their toes into the waters of Electric Bus Development.

One interesting player in this space is Hyundai.

Although it's clearly a big outfit kickback from Seoul Local Government, nevertheless, Hyundai are the first to be placed to get mass production of electric buses going.

For the last year and a half, Hyundai Heavy Industries has partnered with the Seoul Metropolitan Government in order to figure out the best project plan to replace 50% of the diesel bus fleet with an all-electric bus fleet. This is not an insignificant sized fleet at 240,000 vehicles. The specifications of the buses involved are a top speed of 60 miles per hour, with a range of 60 miles and a full recharge in 30 minutes. That specification basically covers 80% of all potential bus routes globally.

The first steps were taken in December 2010 with the installation of 12 electric buses on the Mt Namsan circular route section in Seoul.

I await the outcome of this with great interest.

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