A total of 172 electric buses have entered service from Fontibón, connecting citizens with the localities of Suba, Chapinero and Rafael Uribe, mainly.

It consists of 83 standard buses with a capacity of 80 passengers, and 89 vans with a capacity of 50 passengers, which will provide the service on six routes. Of these, three were part of the SITP Provisional scheme, and were previously served by 89 vehicles that were withdrawn from circulation.

This new fleet and the city’s fifth electric bus depot were presented by the Bogotá Mayor’s Office, through Transmilenio S.A., the concessionaire Mueve Fontibón, BYD and Enel X, a business unit of Enel-Codensa.

The 172 new vehicles are in addition to the 483 zero-emission buses currently operating in the system in the Usme, Suba, Fontibón and Perdomo and Venecia areas, making a total of 655 all-electric buses. During 2022, 830 additional electric vehicles will arrive to complete the 1,485 electric buses in operation.

«We are proud to deliver these 172 electric buses, which will have great advantages with these six new routes for Bogotá residents in the areas of Fontibón, Suba, San Cristóbal and the expanded city centre,» said Felipe Ramírez, the District Secretary of Mobility.

The routes to be served by the 172 new buses are: KA306 Zona Franca – Centro Andino, KC321 Fontibón Brisas – Tibabuyes, KC315 Puente Grande – Suba Lisboa, KH322 Fontibón Brisas – Cerros de Oriente, KA319 Selva Dorada – Centro Andino and KC323 El Recodo – Suba Compartir.

«We want them to know that every time they see a green bus in the city, it is a clean, electric bus, and every time they see a yellow bus, it is a gas bus, which is less polluting. At the end of this year, Bogotá will be able to proudly say that it has the largest electric fleet and the largest clean mass public transport system of any city in the world, outside of China,» says Mayor Claudia Lopez.

Álvaro José Rengifo, General Manager of Transmilenio S.A., says: «The arrival of these new buses is necessary to complete the consolidation of our system and improve the service we are providing to our users.

The buses are BYD brand, powered by electric motors with zero polluting emissions, and are equipped with technological elements to improve the travel experience for citizens: noise reduction, Wi-Fi access, USB ports for charging mobile phones, screens and sound information about the routes, GPS, speakers and microphones that communicate directly with the Control Centre, accessible platforms for people with disabilities, an assistant for ascending or starting on slopes, a fast energy recharging process and automatic fire control.

Users will be able to see on-board screens, information panels and their mobile devices, which they can keep charged and connected to a Wi-Fi network, to consult system information such as routes, services, the TransMiApp, news, news and much more, which will allow them to make the right travel decisions and travel in comfort.

In addition, according to BYD, the fleet of the five new lots that will enter into operation has a new generation of batteries, which have better energy density (less weight and volume per unit of energy), which means greater autonomy for the demands of the SITP, in addition to having a design in the chassis-bodywork pair, suitable for the topography and road conditions of the city.

Likewise, this has contributed to the early reactivation of the country’s economy, as the buses are made with national industry, benefiting more than 500,000 inhabitants directly and indirectly in Bogotá.

Mueve Fontibón promotes national industry and the generation of employment through contractors and suppliers. An example of this was the manufacture of the bus bodywork, whose activity generated, on average, 1,406 employees, of which 165 were women.

«We are happy and proud to deliver this operation to the locality of Fontibón and to the citizens, where we will mobilise close to 30,000 passengers a day, which will benefit the environment and all those who interact with the electric bus system,» said Andrés Fernando Cortés Jaramillo, general manager of Mueve.

Bogotá’s fifth 100% electric bus yard

The new zero-emission buses operate from the Escritorio bus depot, located at Carrera 134 #22a – 84, in the district of Fontibón. This infrastructure has 81 chargers, each with 150kW of power, which means that when two buses are connected, each receives 75 kilowatts (kW) of power.

In this case, the estimated charging time for electric buses is four hours and if charging is done individually, it would take approximately two hours. The Escritorio yard will be operated by the concessionaire Mueve Fontibón.

The construction was carried out by Enel X, a business unit of Enel-Codensa, with an investment of approximately 60 billion pesos in construction and equipment, and an additional 15 billion pesos in infrastructure and networks.

«Today the city has five one hundred percent electric bus depots, with the capacity to operate around 650 buses, giving the city a new lease of life. We are proud to be partners in this project that integrates new technologies and sustainable solutions to transform Bogotá into one of the main electric capitals in Latin America,» said Lucio Rubio Díaz, Enel’s general manager in Colombia.

Electric buses awarded

In total BYD and Busscar were awarded 596 electric buses in the last stage of Transmilenio’s bidding process. Both Functional Unit 13 USME II and Functional Unit Fontibón IV were awarded to the bidder Bogotá ZE SAS coupled with BRT Plus SAS. While Functional Unit VIII Perdomo II was awarded to Vip Green Mobility LLC, a proponent of uncoupled provision.

Prior to that, 406 100% electric units were awarded to BYD and Superpolo in addition to the 483 awarded in past bidding processes.