May 9 2014
BYD Company Ltd. has received a record-setting order for their new energy vehicles. Situated in east China along the Qiantang River lies Hangzhou, a place commonly referred to as one of China’s most beautiful cities.
The pure-electric BYD e6 Taxi and k9 Transit Bus (Photo: Business Wire)
In response to China’s deteriorating air quality and ecological environment, Hangzhou’s Leadership has taken a serious stance on combatting the issues by adopting zero-emissions public transportation, namely electric buses and taxis.
The order for 2,000 long-range, battery-electric transit buses and 1,000 long-range, pure-electric cars was signed this week by the Mayor of Hangzhou, Hongming Zhang and is one of the world’s largest all-electric fleets ever ordered. “Hangzhou is a beautiful place with a rich history and culture, as well as a great environment for investment. BYD is excited to bring our world-leading electric transportation technologies to Hangzhou and witness the vision and dreams of this leadership team come to pass,” said BYD Ltd founder and Chairman, Wang Chuanfu. The order is a remarkable achievement for BYD, cementing their place as the world’s preeminent electric-fleet provider. “There is simply no other company that manufactures and delivers fleets of electric cars and electric buses by the thousands! The R&D expertise, manufacturing scale and component spend leverage BYD is gaining from building and delivering these fleets has put us years ahead of any possible competitor,” said BYD America Vice President Micheal Austin who just delivered BYD’s first American-made long-range, electric buses last week to California’s Governor Jerry Brown.
Hangzhou is home to Alibaba, another high-tech Chinese company known for game-changing innovations. “Today the electric vehicle market is growing and EV technologies have matured to the point where every city transit should be adopting them. The turning point of new energy is now, and we want to see BYD grow the same way we saw Jack Ma’s Alibaba grow years ago,” said Secretary Gong Zheng of Hangzhou’s Municipal Committee. BYD will be making special arrangements to deliver the first 1,000 buses and 500 eTaxis by the end of 2014.