Seoul becomes first city to use electric bus for commercial purpose

The South Korean government has taken a pro-active leap for a greener environment after they launched the commercial operation of 5 electric buses. The service was launched by SMG (Seoul Metropolitan Government) where they will be operational along the Mount Namsan circular routes in the city of Seoul.

The buses which run on electric will be able to ferry passengers on a maxium of 52 miles on a single charge and if needed they can re-charge on the 2 quick-charge stations for the buses located around its routes. The 36 feet long buses will be able to go up to 100kilometers per hour and recharging usually takes about 30 minutes. The buses were a result of Hankuk Fiber and Hyundai Heavy Industries and is powered up through its lithium-ion battery pack. These electric buses come with a 322 horsepower engine which has the capability of collecting and reusing the energy generated from its brakes in situations like when the vehicle is travelling downhill.

Apparently, the 5 ‘new’ buses will be taking over the duties of 5 normal buses and 9 more are in the cards to replace the diesel powered older buses that service the route. This would the world’s first service of this type and has been operational since December 21 which has been worked on by SMG for the past one and a half years. This is part of the efforts by the city of Seoul in their ‘Green-Car, Smart City’ where they are aiming to put some 120,000 green vehicles in Seoul by the year 2020.