Alcoa and BYD have co-developed a new all-aluminum space-frame and electric bus design that has reduced the weight of BYD’s 40-foot, transit, all-electric bus by 40 percent, or nearly one ton, versus the steel design. The first two new models of the eBUS-12 were launched this week in Changsha City, Hunan Province, China.
In addition to reducing the weight of the bus body, BYD uses Alcoa forged wheels and Huck Spin(R) fasteners to reduce overall bus weight by over 1.2 tons in total. The combined weight savings are expected to improve the overall range of the electric bus by more than 10 percent. The bus has a range of over300 kilometers (>188 miles) on a single battery charge.
BYD has orders to produce thousands of the electric buses for the China and Southeast Asia markets and will export and potentially manufacture the buses globally depending on EV and bus market growth. Hertz announced last week the first BYD eBUSs running in the US at Los Angeles’ LAX. Alcoa will be the supplier of the structural aluminum and of the forged aluminum wheels and fasteners for the bus production.
The new bus design builds on Alcoa's capabilities in safe transportation design, including automotive and ground transportation space frame technologies for leading brands such as Ferrari and Audi. "It is impressive that we were able to drop more than 1.2tons from the weight of BYD's new electric bus compared to steel," said Jinya Chen, President of Alcoa's Asia-Pacific region. "However, this design is about more than just weight -- the new design is durable, corrosion resistant, infinitely recyclable and expected to increase the range by at least 10percent while withstanding the rigors of everyday city driving.""We are pleased to have worked with a global expert in transportation such as Alcoa as we began work on this new electric bus program," said Xie Shibin Vice President of BYD Auto Research Institute. "Alcoa's design and materials combined with our environmentally-friendly battery and power-train make this new bus the best in the industry in terms of environmental-compliance, direct-emissions, range, safety and performance."