AN ELECTRIC BUS PRODUCED IN KAZAKHSTAN HAS BEEN TESTED IN ALMATY
The new Golden Dragon electric bus assembled in Kazakhstan has driven along the streets of Almaty in a testing mode. Astana Motors has offered the domestically produced electric bus to the city for testing.
The bus has already passed a successful test drive in Nur-Sultan before. The workers of Almatyelektrotrans were among the first people in Almaty who assessed the features of the new bus.
The 12-meter low-floor electric Golden Dragon bus is equipped with the latest batteries – lithium iron phosphate. This battery is a type of lithium-ion battery. One of the important advantages in comparison with other types of similar batteries is thermal and chemical stability, which significantly increases the battery’s safety as well as its frost resistance. It has light weight, high energy consumption, and a shorter time for recharging: the battery is fully charged in four hours and sufficient for 350 km. Golden Dragon has applied active protection against rapid change of temperature in this bus model that is especially important for Kazakhstan with its sharply continental climate.
The price of this bus in the current configuration is 137 million tenge. This price includes additional equipment such as a validator, a driver’s fatigue control sensor, a video surveillance system, which transmits signals to the driver’s screen, climate control, USB connectors for passengers, and a charging station for a bus with a 380V connector. The low floor of the bus makes it easy for passengers to get into the passenger compartment, and a special retractable platform guarantees safe and easy boarding for people on wheelchairs. Astana Motors can produce an electric bus under an individual order with additional options at the request of customers.
It is possible to buy buses for leasing under the current state program of preferential loans for renewing the bus fleet from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan. DBK-Leasing JSC provides financial leasing services for a period of 7 years with an interest rate of 7 % per annum in tenge with down payment of 15 % of the contract value.
In order to give more information about the advantages of Golden Dragon buses, which include gas and diesel-driven buses in addition to electric ones, Astana Motors has launched a test drive program. The bus depots throughout the country have the opportunity to take a bus for a test drive during a certain period of time without purchasing it and without any other charges.
The Kazakhstani electric bus is a new project of the auto assembly plant of Astana Motors (Almaty) in the area of development of land urban transportation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is a reliable and environmentally friendly type of transport, which our cities lack.
Source: tengrinews.kz