The Taipei City Government has added 16 electric buses to its fleet, in a push to cut carbon emissions and noise pollution, the Taipei Department of Transportation told a news conference on Monday.
Shin-Shin Bus, a bus operator, has replaced 16 diesel-powered buses, which served the 236 and 251 shuttle lines, with electric vehicles, department Director Chen Hsueh-tai (陳學台) said, adding that the move was part of a planned decommissioning of aging buses.
Under the Executive Yuan directive for replacing all urban public buses with electric vehicles by 2030, Taipei began introducing electric buses to its fleet in 2018 and expects to have put 529 electric buses on the road by 2022, he said.
Photo: Tsai Szu-pei, Taipei Times
Prices for diesel-engined buses, which cost about NT$5 million (US$175,396) per vehicle, are initially cheaper than electric buses, but they pollute, require more expensive servicing and are more expensive to operate, Chen said.
Due to engine noise and vibrations, they are less comfortable for passengers, he added.
Electric buses cost from NT$10 million to NT$12 million, but they save costs, and offer more comfort and safety, he said.
Advanced driver-assistance system, which are standard on electric buses, could warn the driver of dangerous situations, for example when the gap between the bus and other vehicles is too small, when the driver unintentionally leaves a lane or drives at excessive speed, Chen said.
Taipei’s low-floored diesel buses are typically used for eight years, while properly maintained electric buses are expected to remain in service for about 12 years, he said.
Taipei this year granted subsidies to bus operators for the purchase of 258 electric buses and requested central government subsidies for 223 more vehicles, in a bid to meet the 2022 targets, Chen said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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