World’s Largest Battery Electric Vehicle—The Lancaster eBus

Electric vehicles are the future, however, there have been concerns over how many kilometres these vehicles can run per single electric charge.

Introducing the world's largest battery electric vehicle—the Lancaster eBus.

The eBus has been developed by BYD Motors and was premiered at this year's American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Expo in Houston.

Based in Pingshan, China, BYD specializes in batteries, and the Lancaster eBus uses BYD's iron phosphate batteries also found in its cars and non-articulated buses.

The Lancaster eBus has a range of over 250 km with a load of 120 passengers. The company believes there is enough charge to carry out a day's work, allowing night time electric charge—when rates are lower.

Lancaster eBus facts:

– 150 kW electric motor that generates 550 Nm of torque.
– The eBus can handle gradients (slope) of 21% [Suitable for hilly regions].
– The battery can be recharged 10,000 times & still retain a 70% charge.
– The battery has a 25-year life span. [We doubt the bus will last this long.]
– The battery can withstand fire impact, punctures, and crushing.
– One eBus can recharge another [Vehicle-to-vehicle recharge].
– The eBus can also feed power to the grid or a building in an emergency.

"BYD's mission is to create safer and more environmentally-friendly battery technologies," says BYD Motors Fleet Sales Vice President, Brendan Riley. "This has resulted in the BYD iron-phosphate battery; a fire-safe, completely recyclable, and incredibly long-cycle technology—the foundation of BYD's electric buses. These buses run entirely off battery power lasting up to 24 hours on a single charge, with single off-peak charging time of two to four hours. No additional generation capacity is needed to be built to charge our buses at night since the grid is only 40 percent utilized."

Video: BYD electric bus technology