A main public transport provider of Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa, has partnered with China's electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD to introduce electric buses to its fleet, as part of the country's efforts to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Cape Town's Golden Arrow Bus Services (GABS) signed an agreement to purchase 120 electric buses from BYD, following four years of testing. The deliveries are scheduled to start late this year, with all the vehicles expected to be operational before December 2025.
Talking about the partnership, GABS said that could help them control fuel costs, while BYD said the move marks a historic shift for its South African partner.
"It's a first for the whole of South Africa actually having these electric buses in service, carrying passengers every single day, so it's absolutely huge. And obviously there's a lot at stake in terms of making sure our public transport moves forward sustainably. We are facing a lot of problems with the cost of transport, so we needed to also make sure that it's going to be financially viable and all of our projections thus far are showing that it's going to really help to mitigate against that unstable fuel price," said Bronwen Dyke-Beyer, the spokesperson of GABS.
"We started this working relationship with Golden Arrow and it's three-and-a-half to four years ago. Initially we started piloting two buses with them to try to map out the operation and calculate the savings and then making sure that the electric buses can and will do well with a fleet. This is the biggest fleet change in the company in terms of changing to a different technology. And then it's almost like a historical milestone for them as well," said Steve Chang, general manager of BYD Auto South Africa.
According to Golden Arrow's estimates, the introduction of 120 electric buses could blaze a trail for its renewable energy transition.
"We are very excited to have this partnership with BYD and, yes, having 120 buses in the fleet is really going to make a difference because currently having three or four in operation has given us a lot of data, we've done over 200,000 kilometers worth of testing but obviously the real proof of the pudding is really in the testing at scale. So we believe that having these 120 buses in the fleet, which would be 10 percent of our current fleet, is really going to show us the way forward," said Bronwen Dyke-Beyer.
As for BYD, which started operating its first electric bus in the UK in 2012, the expansion into the South African market marks another step in its journey to increase overseas presence.
"I think there are some BYD buses that are under operation in Shenzhen that have already achieved 1.5 million kilometers in operation. So I think in terms of building trust, it's not only our operation that's in South Africa. BYD is already the number one EV company in the whole world," said Chang.
Chinese electric buses fuel S Africa's green transition
