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A few months ago, coming from China, the new N18EV arrived into the Pacific Port of Buenaventura. After clearing all legal hurdles (which took a few weeks), it started its drive towards the Western Cordillera, reaching a peak of 2020 meters above sea level and going down the other side to Cali, 130 km east, to make its first recharge.
On the second day of its trip, the bus had its biggest challenge yet: driving 270 km from Cali to Ibague, crossing the Central Cordillera and rising to 3300 meters above sea level to get to the other side. In Ibague, the articulated e-bus had its second recharge.
The third day, it went from Ibague to Bogota, reaching its destination 210 km further ahead, and rising to 2600 meters over sea level (Bogota’s altitude). In there, it was then prepared for trials on Bogota’s BRT line (called Transmilenio), for which it was designed.
Bogota’s BRT Expansion
Bogota’s BRT system is being upgraded and expanded, and the city is planning to purchase new buses to replace old ones and to operate the new BRT lines on 68th and 86th Avenues, as well as for the expansion on South Highway. As EVs are required to account for at least part of these purchases, local companies are preparing for the new reality and the current heavyweights in the market — BYD and Yutong — may now have to fight fiercer competition than before.
Bogota has the second largest e-bus fleet anywhere outside of China (after Santiago, Chile), but this will be the first time BRT lines are operated with articulated e-buses: currently, the entire articulated and bi-articulated fleet is either diesel or gas.
Zhongtong’s N18EV
The newly arrived bus is 18 meters long. It has capacity for 32 seated and 125 standing passengers, and has a maximum weight capacity of 30 tons. Ordinary (diesel) articulated buses currently weigh an expected 29 tons when full, which means that we’ve basically reached weight parity by now, and there should be no reason to prevent an e-bus from working on the BRT lines.
(I said this because, as some of you may remember, Bogota’s bi-articulated e-bus was benched because it weighed a few tons over the allowed limit).
The bus is powered by two motors, 214kW and 380kW respectively, and by a massive BC5 CATL battery with 528 kWh capacity. Max speed is 60 km/h and estimated range is expected to surpass 250 km, barely enough for its daily expected use (~260 km), so it may require an hour of charging midday. It is designed for operations in flat terrain, but as its trial on the Colombian roads proved, it’s more than capable of managing steep cliffs if needed.
In the coming weeks, the bus will start trials, first with dead weight, then — hopefully — with passengers. Navitrans will then make offers to the BRT operators that will present bids to the city in late 2025 or early 2026.
Until then, we will not know the cost of this bus, so we can’t be sure if it’s already cheaper than diesel buses or not. Charging speeds can reach 260 kW, meaning fast-charging installations will be required and 2-hour charging times will be the norm to reach full charge from 12%.
Navitrans E-Bus Portfolio
The arrival of the e-bus is good news, of course, but it did come with a surprise.
It turns out I missed the electrification of bus offers in Colombia: Navitrans, a company traditionally focused on diesel vehicles, seems to have been quietly yet effectively increasing its scope and it now provides a comprehensive electric portfolio, including (surprisingly) an electric cement mixer, but also 7 e-buses besides the N18EV as well as two electric vans for either passengers or cargo. Some of these buses are fairly range-limited (120 km), but there’s no doubt there are some customers willing to save some money if they don’t really need the extra range. However, most buses in the country seem to be used for inter-city travel and, sadly, that seems out of reach for e-buses in the foreseeable future.
At last, pricing is not public, which means we can’t yet check how far ahead we are as far as price parity goes.
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