BYD Unveils World's First Battery Electric Coach Bus

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Jan 27, 2015, 04:51 ET

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- BYD Motors Inc. has officially unveiled the world's first long range, 100% Battery Electric Over the Road Coach Bus. This first electric coach, named the BYD C9, is a two-axle, 40' coach with the seating capacity to carry 47 people at highway speed for over 190 miles. "The transportation industry is still just warming up to the idea of Battery Electric transit buses," said BYD Coach & Bus Vice President of Sales, Macy Neshati. "It was exciting to walk around last year's APTA Expo in Houston and see so many reputable names displaying an electrified transit bus. However, I don't think anybody thought they would see a viable electric coach solution for a few more years."

Pictured Above: The BYD C9 unveiled at the 2015 United Motor Coach Association Expo

The BYD C9 is the first of three 100% Battery Electric coaches the company will launch globally this year. The other two, a 45' three-axle coach named the C10 and a 23' coach with executive and transport configurations named the C6 will be arriving by the end of 2015, and BYD sales managers at the 2015 UMA Expo were adamant about the fact they are taking orders for all three of the coaches starting now. "Last year, BYD pulled away from the competition in the transit space when they launched a 30' low floor bus and a 60' articulated bus in addition to their 40' bus making them the only electric bus builder with multiple offerings. This year the launch of three coach buses puts BYD on a level with no other bus or coach OEM. Not many people know this about BYD but we are a multibillion-dollar company employing nearly 190,000 people worldwide. There simply has never been a bus manufacturer in the United States with this sort of engineering or manufacturing power, that's why I tell every customer I meet with they should go BYD, it's the safe choice!" said Neshati.

ABOUT BYD Motors Inc.:
BYD Motors Inc. is an American manufacturing company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of BYD Company Ltd, the largest domestic auto-manufacturer and electric-bus manufacturer in China.

BYD is a publicly traded company, with the Hong Kong listed stock 60% of which is owned by U.S. investors, and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway as the largest single shareholder at 9.9%. BYD Motors established its headquarters in downtown Los Angeles in October 2011 and has now hired over 60 Americans to support BYD Electric Bus and Energy Module factories in Lancaster, California. There are over 25 American research and development and sales support personnel at the Los Angeles headquarters. BYD expects to create 200 more new jobs by the end of 2015.

Contacts in China: Sherry Li
[email protected] tel: +86-755-8988-8888-69666
United States: Micheal Austin
[email protected] tel: 1(800) BYD-AUTO
Europe: Penny Peng
[email protected] tel: +31-102070888