Volvo will test electric bus in South America

By Redação AutoIndústria | 2/24/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch

Presented to the Brazilian passenger transportation sector at the LatBus 2022, the BZL, the first Volvo’s 100% electric bus chassis, will begin a test program in South America this year.

The model will be submitted to real operation situations in cities such as Santiago, Chile, Bogota, Colombia and three of the largest Brazilian capitals: Curitiba, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Developed to meet the demands of cities willing to decarbonize public transportation, the BZL was officially launched in Europe in 2021 and is already used in urban fleets in the United Kingdom and Australia.

According to the operation needs, the model can be equipped with three or five 94 kWh battery packets, which supply energy for up to a 300 km range. The vehicle has two 200 kW electric motors with a torque of 800 Nm (81.6 kgfm). The chassis can receive bodies from 9 to 13.2 meter-long for up to 90 passengers.

Designed for urban services, Volvo promises flexibility to the transport operator: the batteries can be recharged at night, at the company’s garage, or receive six-minute fast charges at the end of line stops through a roof dispositive.