UN agency donates electric buses to the Beijing Olympics
To help China with its goal of hosting a "green olympics" the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has donated four lithium ion battery-powered buses for the effort. That brings the total number of electric buses in the Olympic fleet to 50. They are said to be able to carry 80 people at a time at speeds of up to 50 mph.and have a range of about 80 miles with the air conditioning engaged.The electric buses will use a large station during the games for parking and transfers as well as maintenance and battery charging. No word was given of the recharge times although we estimate the battery packs themselves to hold 130Kwh of energy.The official buses are painted blue and green with the Olympic logo and will shuttle athletes between the Olympic Village and the Olympic Sports Venues. After the two weeks of athletic contests are completed the vehicles will officially enter the Beijing transportation system where they can officially carry people quietly about the city for (hopefully) years to come.
[Source: Gasgoo / UNDP China]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 8:13PM (8/08/2008)
This is really funny. It's as if the UN is saying, "China, please save yourself."
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Joce03 8:30PM (8/08/2008)
Electric cars are on the way my friends.
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Bill 12:21PM (8/09/2008)
Regarding charge times, swapping the empty packs with charged ones makes the most sense for buses.
From EV World Newswire (http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=18730):
"The batteries are easily replaced and quickly charged; during the Games, each bus is scheduled to undergo battery changes two to three times a day, fulfilling the needs of the 24-hour transportation network that will be provided in the heart of the Olympic district."
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marua 8:33PM (8/11/2008)
If China could spend $50million for Olympic opening ceremony, they should have spend half of that to buy more of these buses to augment air pollution.
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