Macao Gets Its First Electric Taxi Fleet Thanks To Partnership With BYD

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Macao is now home to its first fleet of all-electric taxis, following the delivery of 16 units of modified BYD e6 sedans to the territory by the China-based manufacturer, according to an email sent to CleanTechnica.

The new delivery and deployment of electric BYD taxis comes as part of the BYD/Macao “Public Transportation Electrification” program, which has already seen the deployment of 20 all-electric BYD buses/coaches in Macao, via two local tourism-focused firms.

Image credit: Kyle Field, CleanTechnica

With regard to the new BYD e6 taxi deployment, this fleet will be managed by the local operator Synertec Management Co, with the deployment being part of the Macao Special Administration Region (SAR) government’s efforts to reduce emissions and street noise.

The BYD e6, for those unfamiliar with it, utilizes the company’s proprietary iron-phosphate battery tech to provide a range of up to 400 kilometers per charge officially (real-world range is a fair bit lower).

“Without doubt, the BYD e6 is the best option for taxis. That is why cities within the Chinese mainland have chosen this model over the past 8 years,” commented Ho Chan Leong, Executive Director of Synertec Management Co. “Today is just the beginning of our grand project. We will introduce more BYD electric taxis to Macao in future while providing the best service to our passengers.”

The email sent to CleanTechnica provides a bit more context: “BYD’s expansion into Macao began in 2013 when it successfully tested its pure electric bus. A year later the Shenzhen-based company delivered its first passenger vehicle to a customer in Macao. In November 2016, BYD won the first pure electric coach order in Macao at the China (Macao) International Automobile Exposition. The company’s 11-ton pure electric truck has also received encouraging feedback from local customers.”

Expect to see more electric vehicles deployed as part of taxi fleets around the world more and more and time goes by, as from an operating expenses perspective they are already often simply far more attractive (and getting more so by the year).


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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