BogotáWhile São Paulo struggles with a lack of infrastructure to expand its fleet of electric buses, Bogotá has been successful in increasing the use of this type of vehicle in its public transportation system—and, thus, may become an example for Brazilian cities.
The Colombian capital already has the second-largest fleet of electric buses in Latin America, behind only Santiago.While the Chilean capital has about 2,000 vehicles of this type in its public system, Bogotá currently has 1,486, a number that has been growing recently.
Thus, 14% of the city’s current fleet of 10.6 thousand buses are battery-powered.Garage optimizes space with overhead infrastructure to charge electric buses in Bogotá, capital of Colombia – FolhapressHowever, Santiago’s leadership may not last long.
Colombia is already preparing a bidding process to double the electric bus fleet of its capital, surpassing 3,000 vehicles.In São Paulo, currently only 0.9% of the fleet is electric.
Data from the administration of Ricardo Nunes (MDB) indicate that there are 118 vehicles of this type in the public transport system, which in total has 13,289 buses.
The entity responsible for this electrification process of Bogotá’s public system is TransMilenio, a public company that manages the city’s public transportation, similar to the role played by SPTrans in São Paulo.
Planning director of the entity, Deysi Rodríguez estimates that the use of the 1,486 electric buses generates an annual reduction of 94 thousand tons of carbon dioxide.
As Folha reported in March, Nunes’ administration has been facing difficulties in fulfilling its promise to end the year with 2,600 battery-powered models, equivalent to 20% of the fleet.
The lack of garages with infrastructure to charge the vehicles is the biggest obstacle to expansion
.The city government points to Enel as the main culprit for the delay, the utility company that serves the municipality.The company also has the energy concession in Bogotá.
In the city, however, the contract already stipulates that it is responsible for both building the distribution network for bus charging and acquiring the vehicles. This does not exist in the case of São Paulo.
According to experts in the sector, the Brazilian government failed to consider the implementation of infrastructure in the contracts with the utility companies signed in 2019, and only in September 2023 was there an addendum for the subsidy of bus purchases in São Paulo.
“There is no commitment from either the operators, the city government, or Enel on how and when this implementation will be carried out. In fact, this is creating a barrier to the entry of new vehicles into the system, as the city government has banned the incorporation of diesel vehicles,” says urban planner Rafael Drummond.”
Santiago and Bogotá are more advanced because they have taken responsibility for electrification and have separated all the stages of the contracts.
In São Paulo, the city government expects the private sector to solve the charging issue instead of having its own project,” says Rafael Calabria, urban mobility coordinator at Idec (Consumer Defense Institute).TransMilenio offers two concession models for public transportation.
In the first one, Enel is responsible for the electric yard and can lease it to bus companies. In the second one, the companies themselves take on the garage construction.
Bogotá currently has nine garages with a 100% electric fleet, as well as a mixed one, with space to also accommodate buses powered by diesel or CNG (natural gas).
The largest one, operated by Green Móvil, has 40 thousand square kilometers and houses 406 cars, transporting 80 thousand passengers per day.Inaugurated in April 2022, this garage cost R$100 million and has 119 chargers with 381 energy dispensers (recharging hoses) that can operate simultaneously.”
Each bus travels an average of 210 kilometers per day, and the battery has a range of 266 kilometers,” says Andres Cerquera, infrastructure director at Green Móvil.To meet the demand, the garage has two substations with the capacity to supply a city with 200 thousand residents and a fire-fighting system with two water tanks.
Another solution in the city was the construction of a garage with an overhead charging system, which allowed charging all 196 buses at the same time in an area of 28 thousand square meters.
The location, owned by the company La Rolita, is surrounded by a hill on the border of Bogotá with the city of Soacha. The yard has an island where 21 superchargers are located on an iron mezzanine.
They are used to power 183 refueling hoses.The charging time can vary from two to six hours, depending on the number of vehicles being charged simultaneously.
One supercharger has enough energy to supply five buses at the same time.The garage took 18 months to complete and allowed La Rolita to stop emitting 6,000 tons of pollutants per year, says the site administrator, Sebastian Saenz.
The company also stands out for having 60% of female drivers.Operators of the electric buses point to another attraction: the low noise level.
“There are many drivers who prefer electric buses because they become calmer due to the engine noise level compared to traditional models, and the gear shift and clutch are more comfortable,” says Jimmy Daraz, operations manager at Green Móvil, which employs a thousand drivers.
With such solutions and results, Colombia has been attracting the leading manufacturers in the sector. The Chinese BYD, for example, manufactured 1,473 of Bogotá’s 1,486 buses—the other 13 were produced by the also Chinese company Yutong.
Lara Zhang, BYD’s regional manager in the country, says that Bogotá’s main advantages are the legal certainty in tenders and tax incentives for vehicle imports.”
