Last year, transport minister Anthony Loke announced that the electrification of Rapid Bus will be implemented in two phases. The first saw Prasarana, the parent entity of Rapid Bus, procuring 100 electric buses among 300 in total, with the second phase expected to begin in 2025. Moving along these lines, the minister has instructed Prasarana to only get electric buses moving forward.
The Malay Mail quotes Loke as saying that “the last batch of diesel buses will be delivered in March next year”. After that, all the buses procured by Prasarana will be of the electric variety. Bernama reports that said last batch consisted of 310 diesel buses.
Also noted in the first report is that Prasarana will be adding over 1,100 electric buses between 2025 an 2030, which lines up with the aforementioned second phase of the electrification of Rapid Bus. As for diesel buses, the company aims to completely phase them out by 2037.
Previously, the minister said that “the government is also considering the possibility of purchasing electric buses through leasing to ensure that the buses received are always up-to-date with the latest energy technology developments”. It’s unclear which of the many of said buses will be acquired this way.
Prasarana and Rapid Bus initially started their trial of using electric buses at a very limited scale, with only four being deployed at the time. Other companies operating buses outside of the Klang Valley have also dabbled in going green.
(Source: Malay Mail, Bernama)
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