The Million-Mile Zero Emissions Club
Last week, Build Your Dreams (BYD), which manufactures electric buses in California, China, and elsewhere and is headquartered in China, announced inaugural members of its “Million Mile Club,” which is made up of US transit services that have logged over one million miles in their zero-emissions BYD battery-electric buses.
Overall, BYD’s buses have driven more than 15 million emission-free miles while in service in the USA. The company has over 1,000 battery-electric buses built or ordered for U.S. customers. The new 1 Million Mile Club will blossom and its members will continue to add to that mileage. And as they do this, America will work to “Build Back Better.”
According to the US Department of Transportation, every American-made zero-emissions BYD bus prevents the release of 1,690 tons of CO2 over that bus’s 12-year lifespan. Multiply that by 1,000 and you can see the reason to celebrate. BYD Vice President Patrick Duan congratulated the first class of award winners and touched upon the safety and reliability of the buses. “BYD applauds this exemplary group for working on behalf of the health of their communities, creating cleaner air and enhancing service for their riders in safe and reliable US-made buses.”
The winners will each receive a plaque commemorating the record-setting achievement and their membership in the Million Mile Club. The list of transit services that are in this club so far are as follows:
- Antelope Valley Transit Authority (3.4 million zero-emission miles).
- Stanford University (2.5 million zero-emission miles).
- Denver RTD (1.3 million zero-emission miles).
- IndyGo (1.7 million zero-emission miles).
BYD’s Impact On Other Parts Of The World
In Colombia
Although for right now the new Million Mile Club is based in the US, BYD makes several electric buses for various countries. In Colombia, BYD just delivered 470 electric buses to its capital, Bogota. This is the country’s largest fleet of pure battery-electric buses and also marks the largest fleet of electric buses that BYD has delivered to the Americas.
For the delivery of the first batch of 120 buses, the Bogota city government and the Bogota City Public Transport Authority held a grand launch and delivery ceremony. The new buses were delivered for 9 bus routes across the city on December 26, 2020. The new buses will serve around 69,300 passengers. The remaining 350 buses will be added to 30 additional routes during the first quarter of 2021. By then, the total number of passengers enjoying zero-emissions bus service will be 302,000.
In China
Ideanomics’ MEG recently purchased 2,000 customized BYD EVs for ride-hailing services. The company will deploy the vehicles in multiple cities in China. Passengers will be able to hail the cars through the Didi Chuxing app. BYD may be known for its buses, but it also makes other types of vehicles, such as automobiles, bikes, and even forklifts.
Battery Recycling
In collaboration with Itochu, a Japanese trading house, BYD will collect used EV batteries from dealerships all over China — from buses, taxis, and other vehicles it has manufactured — and deliver them to Pandpower for performance tests. Itochu will buy the batteries that pass the screening phase and use them in large power storage units.
Build Your Dreams is a bold name for a company, but it certainly seems like BYD is doing that — for itself and many others.
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