Long Beach Transit awards BYE contract for 10 "All Electric Buses"

[theaveragejoe]

http://www.lbtransit...ting_022513.pdf

[Turbo19]

Quoting myself from another transit disscussion board.

 

Though I thought the Passport looked nice with all the new Gillig BRT's, the new BYE's are sure to fit the route perfectly.

 

And I'm sure LBT will move the Passport's Gillig's over to other routes so that's cool.

 
 

[Eric B]

That's "BYD Motors". 

(Interesting, it seems to be another company devoted to electric vehicles).

(Nice selection of LED bulbs too!)

[Culver]

Rather disappointing to see American and Canadian manufacturers so slow to the electric party, but good for BYD. Hopefully this will light a fire under Nova's and NFI's behinds.

[FamousNYLover]

I thought you were talking about City of Long Beach buses and it was CA's Long Beach bus. I think this do belong in Other Regional Transit?

[Turbo19]

Yeah, it's Long Beach Transit in California.

 

I have to agree this would have been better in the regional thread, but what's done is done.

[theaveragejoe]

 

Quoting myself from another transit disscussion board.

 

 

 

 

 

Those will get unwraped and joint the regular LBT fleet

[theaveragejoe]

Trouble with the order now?

 

By George Economides, Publisher

 

UPDATE 1 p.m. An hour ago, the Business Journal issued the article below about Long Beach Transit’s (LBT) pending purchase of buses from a Chinese firm. Since then, we have confirmed with an Apple executive that Apple has not purchased any buses from the Chinese firm as claimed in a LBT staff report. “We have not purchased any buses . . . and we have checked with our U.S. and Asian partners. None of our partners are using these buses,” stated the Apple executive. That statement, therefore, contradicts Page 14 of the LBT staff report which, as stated below, indicated Apple purchased 5 buses.

 

March 8, 2013 Noon – The seven-member Long Beach Transit Board of Directors may have some explaining to do if it sticks with a staff recommendation to pick a Chinese firm over a U.S. company for the purchase of 10 zero emission all-electric buses.

 

The board has scheduled a study session at 2:30 p.m. today to review a little noticed decision it made last month to spend $12.1 million with the firm BYD Motors, which is the U.S. subsidiary of China-based BYD Company Ltd. The funding for the buses was secured from the Federal Transit Administration’s Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction Program.

 

BYD beat out South Carolina-based Proterra, which just added San Antonio to its list of cities using its buses. Other cities are Stockton, Pomona, Reno, Tallahassee, Worcester in Massachusetts and Seneca in South Carolina. BYD, according to a LBT staff report, has delivered 702 buses, but only six in the U.S.: 1 to Hertz in Los Angeles and 5 to Apple in Cupertino. Proterra has delivered 10 buses out of 24 ordered.

 

BYD (which stands for Build Your Dreams) has developed, according to its website, from 20 employees in 1995 to a corporation with more than 150,000 employees and 10 industrial parks across China in 2009. Proterra, formed in 2004 in Greenville, has 160 employees.

 

The Long Beach Transit (LBT) staff recommended BYD as “the best solution,” based on: “lower life cycle costs; company experience and financially healthy; battery risk, minimal with safe technology and 7.5 year warranty.”

 

Despite staff’s recommendation, the LBT Board and staff may come under criticism for not giving an American firm an opportunity, as other U.S. cities have, to grow in the fairly new green bus industry, especially since the funding is from the U.S. government.

 

http://lbbusinessjournal.com/read-it-now/1351-long-beach-transit-board-picking-chinese-company-over-us-electric-bus-firm.html

[Turbo19]

Adding on to the scandal with LBT.
 

BYD Motors, the U.S.-based subsidiary of a China-based company that Long Beach Transit (LBT) staff recommended this past February 25 for its Electric Bus Project, is--according to multiple documents--not the company it claims itself to be.
 
Just three days after LBT staff's recommendation to the Board that BYD procure the transit company 10 electric buses for its fleet, Goldman Sachs released an earnings review of BYD Motors' parent firm, BYD Company, stating its technology businesses were "below expectations." Even further, the investment banking firm's report told BYD Company investors to sell their shares due to BYD's "very thin margins" and "poor [second-half of 2012] results."

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