King Long XMQ6130——The First Interurban Electric Bus in Chile

On Feb 20^th ,the first electric bus was presented at the Alameda bus terminal in Santiago, which made Chile as the second country in the world to have an electric interurban bus.

Driving mileage of this bus would reach up to 250 kilometers. The bus has technological elements such as reading light, air conditioning, USB charger for cell phones, entertainment system on board and Wi-Fi.

The first electric bus was presented at the Alameda bus terminal in Santiago, which made Chile as the second country in the world to have an electric interurban bus.

The ceremony was presided by the Minister of Energy, Susana Jiménez, together with the Mayor of the Metropolitan Region, Karla Rubilar and executives of the companies Turbus, Copec and Vivipra.

Model of the bus is King Long XMQ6130 and will be put into operation on February 20 on the route between Santiago and Rancagua.

The bus has a driving mileage up to 250 kilometers and its maximum speed has been automatically limited at 100 km / h for safety issues. It is a single-decker bus and has 44 reclining seats with armrests and various technological elements such as reading light, air conditioning, USB charger for cell phones, entertainment system on board, and Wi-Fi, among other novelties.

It also has security features such as power cut and fire prevention systems, tire pressure monitoring system, and a modern energy storage system using high voltage batteries with a total capacity of 314 KWH, of which only 80 percent will be used for normal operation, leaving the other 20 percent as reserved energy.

"It makes Chile an international leader"

The Minister Jiménez stressed that "the rollout of the first electric interurban bus in Chile marks a turning point in the electrification of public transport in regions".

"This milestone makes Chile, therefore, an international leader, given that the over the world public transport driven by electric mostly located in urban with only a few exceptions. As a pilot plan of the government, we’d like to know the potential, benefits, challenges and difficulties associated with an intercity bus operation, with the aim of being able to promote such technologies in the future", she explained.