{"id":264287,"date":"2018-08-12T07:14:30","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T05:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=264287"},"modified":"2018-08-12T07:14:30","modified_gmt":"2018-08-12T05:14:30","slug":"cape-towns-new-r128-million-electric-buses-cant-make-it-up-the-hill-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/264287\/cape-towns-new-r128-million-electric-buses-cant-make-it-up-the-hill-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town’s new R128 million electric buses can’t make it up the hill: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s first electric buses are literally facing an uphill battle in Cape Town, after it emerged that they are unsuited for the city’s\u00a0mountainous terrain.<\/p>\n

According to a report by the Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Cape Town councillors heard this week that the 11 buses – which form part of a R128 million pilot project – could not handle many of the inclines in the city.<\/p>\n

The councillors were told that the buses are\u00a0required to be able to achieve 60km\/h on a 4% gradient, and that tests were\u00a0under way to increase the power to drive motors.<\/p>\n

Originally slated to replace the current diesel options on the N2 Express route, the buses were set to tackle a number of hill-areas –\u00a0 including Hospital Bend which has a gradient of 6.5%.<\/p>\n

The Sunday Times noted that the mechanical problem with the buses – manufactured by BYD of China – follows a forensic probe after allegations that mayor Patricia de Lille and senior city officials set up meetings with BYD before the company clinched the deal.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the paper, City of Cape Town spokesperson Priya Reddy said the city could take delivery only once the investigation of the tender was completed.<\/p>\n

“The specifications called for battery-powered low-entry buses of 12m nominal length and a minimum range of 200km between charging, as well as depotcharging equipment,” Reddy said.<\/p>\n

“The specification was based on the city\u2019s MyCiTi bus specifications, but modified to incorporate an electric motor and battery-powered drive.”<\/p>\n

You can read the full story in today’s Sunday Times.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Read: Capetonians are already booking out their homes for the holiday season \u2013 here\u2019s how much they are charging<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s first electric buses are facing an uphill battle in Cape Town, after it emerged this week that they are unsuited for the city’s\u00a0mountainous terrain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":224877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-264287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264287"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264307,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264287\/revisions\/264307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}