Dubai Roads and Transport Authority decided to take advantage of the experience of the Chinese city of Shanghai, to overcome the great challenge that hinders the use of environmentally friendly electric buses in Dubai.
Shanghai lives in climatic conditions similar to the climatic conditions of the country, and the countries of the Arab Gulf region in general, as temperatures rise during the summer to nearly 50 degrees.
The executive director of the Public Transportation Corporation at the authority, Ahmed Hashem Behroozyan, told «Emirates Today» that the organization started in cooperation with a number of leading Chinese companies in the field of producing and operating electric buses (green), to benefit from its experience in this field, as China faces An environmental pollution problem in a number of crowded and high-temperature cities, which makes the use of electric buses an imperative for them, and requires them to use environmentally friendly buses. ”
Behruzian stressed that the use of electric fuel faces several challenges, in the region due to weather conditions, as temperatures rise to large levels, pointing out that the authority is moving to using electric buses instead of diesel, although it uses the cleanest types.
He continued that «most companies that operate electric buses in the world, do not have buses with specifications that suit the Gulf environment. This is what prompted the organization to cooperate with China, as it is internationally known that the largest number of electric buses operate in China, which is also suffering from air pollution.
"China has made technological progress," Behroozyan said. There are cities in it that experience high temperatures and humidity. It is somewhat similar to the environment in the Emirates. Consequently, it can benefit from its experience in manufacturing and operating environmentally friendly buses. ”
He expressed optimism that some Chinese companies could benefit from the experience of operating electric buses, pointing to conducting joint experiments with the aim of reaching the desired technical formula.
He added that the high temperatures and the need to charge the battery in close periods of time increase the material cost in the use of electric energy, at a time when the cost of public transportation must be acceptable in order to reach the highest proportion of the population.
Behruzian said that experimenting with technologies that can be used to operate electric buses requires experiments over a year to test proposed solutions in various conditions and weather conditions throughout the seasons, in addition to testing the ability of the bus to travel long distances.