The prototype is the product of more than a year of work, pairing CRRCʼs world-class understanding of electric drivetrain technology with Ikarusʼs experience producing bus bodies, Ikarus Chairman Gábor Széles was cited as saying by Hungarian news agency MTI. Serial production of the CityPioneer will start next year, he added.
Gu Yifeng, who heads CRRCʼs Hungarian unit, said production of the bus, targeted at European markets, would create more jobs at Ikarus and could give the Hungarian national brand a boost.
The low-floor CityPioneer bus is powered by a 240 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor and a 313 kW battery pack. It can travel 200-260 kilometers on a single charge and can be recharged in 5-6 hours.
Electrobus Europe plans to make prototypes of an electric midibus and an electric articulated bus in the second half of 2019.
In related news, MTI reported Tuesday that the latest issue of the official gazette Magyar Közlöny shows the government has mandated the finance minister, together with the minister for innovation and technology and the minister without portfolio in charge of managing state assets, to ensure HUF 10 billion is allocated for financing intercity bus transport services.
The national bus strategy involves the strategic goal of increasing bus production as manufacturers can assemble 3,060 buses by the end of 2022, while there are 6,000 buses that need replacements, Minister for Innovation and Technology László Palkovics said on Tuesday. If demand is stable, domestic manufacturers can raise output significantly and even make buses for export, he added.
The three domestic companies that need to be taken into consideration are ITK Holding, Kravtex and Ikarus Járműtechnika, Palkovics noted.
The ministers, with the addition of the interior minister, will have to make a proposal by the end of January 2019 on a financing framework for running local public bus transport services.
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