What is said to be the world’s first pure electric double decker bus is to be tested in London as mayor Boris Johnson steps up his battle against the capital’s air pollution.
The zero emission vehicle, which took manufacturers 14 months to develop in China, will go into service on route 16, running between Cricklewood and Victoria Station, from October, the Evening Standard reported.
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The bus can carry 81 passengers and has a battery range of 162 miles.
London’s first pure electric bus route. the 312, will be created between Norwood and South Croydon later this year using nine electric single deck buses, the paper said.
At a summit at London’s City Hall, 24 world cities, including Johannesburg, Bogota (where BYD has recently delivered its first 18 metre, high floor, pure electric bus for testing), Rio de Janeiro, Warsaw and Madrid were committing to rolling out 40,000 ultra low emission buses by 2020.
London’s transport commissioner Peter Hendy said: “Sharing best practice and working together with our colleagues from around the world really is the best way to reach our common goal of reducing emissions.”
However, the Evening Standard noted, environmentalists have accused the mayor of dragging his feet over cleaning up the capital’s air — with pollution in Oxford Street (a major West End shopping street popular with tourists) breaching the EU legal limit for the whole of 2015 after only four days.
