Bustech And Proterra Powered Team Up For Electric Busses In Australia
More and more companies across the world are embracing cleaner technology, both as a response to increasing environmental awareness as well as a pragmatic business decision. For transportation and travel companies like Excellence Coaches, the technology to have is electric vehicles.
North American company Proterra has been looking for an entrance into the Aussie market, to the land down under and companies like Excellence Coaches, which has been provided to them by their recently announced partnership with Bustech. The two companies will be working together to manufacture Bustech’s ZDi transit bus, a 12.5m (41ft) all-electric transit bus build on Proterra’s battery platform. This new model will be the first Proterra Powered battery e-vehicle outside of the region of North America.
As part of the partnership, Bustech will be incorporating Proterra’s battery technology into their ZDi electric bus models. This battery system will be powering the all-electric vehicle, providing 450 kWh of power, allowing for a single-charge drive range of 325km (202 miles). The vehicle, reportedly, can be fully charged in approximately 2 hours.
The partnership will also use Proterra’s battery tech while Bustech’s vehicle manufacturing and assembly setup work well with Australia’s local supply chains. Proterra, meanwhile, will operate as a core technology partner, providing training and development support to Bustech.
Bustech CEO Thinus Steyn issued a statement on the development, saying that Bustech is excited to enter this partnership with Proterra. He says that, since his acceptance of the post of CEO in January 2020, they’ve focused on creating a business and engineering that’s ready and capable of adopting the latest developments that can drive their industry to the future.
Steyn added that they’ve upskilled the group in the six months leading up to the finalization of the partnership with the goal of delivering the ZDi Proterra Powered e-vehicle to the market in early 2021, with orders already in the pipeline, which they’ve been working on a bit prior to announcing their partnership with Proterra.
Proterra reports that their battery packs have features like liquid cooling and active thermal management systems integrated to ensure that their batteries can continue to operate at their best in spite of Australia’s demanding climate.