Bus No. 33 – the first electric bus in Nanjing has been put into use from Jan 1.
The feelings of riding in an electric bus and a regular bus are similar. But the electric bus generates less noise and less petroleum smell, said Xu Qin, a female driver with 25 years of driving experience.
She also said that the start and brake of the bus are much smoother than the regular ones. Furthermore, the dashboard of the electric bus is simpler. It has speedometer and tachometer, and shows the bus’s power quantity and voltage, like the cellphones will indicate the remaining power.
The route of Bus No. 33 covers 17 kilometers. Xu Qin has taken a record of the bus’s daily power consumption carefully. According to the result, a fully-charged bus can run 200 kilometers without air conditioning and 150 kilometers with air conditioning.
On average, a fully-charged bus can run 170 kilometers. By now, Nanjing has totally 10 electric buses. The other nine haven’t been registered yet. They are expected to start service after Jan 10. Another batch of electric buses is expected to serve the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing’s Hexi area.
