Beginning in March of 2014 there will be two new public transport vehicles on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In an effort to introduce non-polluting transportation solutions for the people of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo Transit (SPTrans) has partnered with electric bus manufacturer -- BYD Company Ltd.

São Paulo has a fleet of over 16,000 buses run by SPTrans. BYD Motors will be delivering two new buses to the city for revenue service in first quarter 2014, according to SPTrans.

Sao Paulo Transit has completed a successful pilot program conducted by the city, which concluded that the battery-electric bus was effective on over 80 percent of routes currently in operation. With an overnight charge (conducted off-peak), the bus was found to have an average of 250 kilometers in operational service.

"Our tests were designed to demonstrate the performance of the e-bus running on the streets of Sao Paulo, such as its braking performance and so on. The electric bus was filled with a weight equivalent to a full load of passengers and run on bus lanes and other designed lines in Sao Paulo,” said João Carlos Fagundes, SP Transit Engineering Division Manager.
The same BYD bus design has successfully completed similar pilot programs world-wide. Currently BYD’s battery-electric bus has proven its capabilities on operational routes in Europe, North America, Central America, the Caribbean, Asia as well as in the neighboring South American nation of Colombia, according to SPTrans.

The buses will be integrated along with 20 current buses operating on Line 509M. This corridor is known as the “Smart Bus” route and hosts amenities such as a WiFi network, news broadcasting, and a smart route maps and information system, making this one of the most technologically advanced bus services in the world. In the second phase, SPTransit will implement a Second Swing Passenger Door version of the bus to accommodate multiple fare collection options as well as reducing load/unload time by 38 percent. This system integrates 73 buses from 7 different lines of different shapes and sizes including a double-decker model and an articulated model.