Video: 1st ride of Cairo’s 1st electric bus running from Downtown to 5th Settlement

CAIRO - 22 December 2019: Egypt Today shot a video on Tuesday of the first ride of Cairo’s first electric bus running between Abdel MoneimReyad Square in Downtown and the American University in Cairo (AUC) in the 5th Settlement.



The electric vehicle dubbed City Bus is air conditioned, and friendly to the elderly and wheelchair users. The vehicle contains six surveillance cameras, USB outlets, and a luggage rack. The electric bus runs for 200 kilometers per a 30-minute-long charge but a battery is added to prolong the duration. That type of buses saves around 70 percent of the value of diesel used in regular counterparts.

If the pilot phase succeeds, a contract to purchase 50 electric buses will be closed. The value of the ticket is LE10, which is higher than that of regular buses.

In February, Alexandria started the pilot operation of Egypt’s first electric bus. Cairo plans to deploy more buses into service at the public transport sector, along with naturalgas powered buses in the governorate.

The Public Transport Authority in Cairo received 20 new naturalgas powered buses, as a second batch of buses, a year after these buses enteredservice. Thefirst batch included 10 buses. So far, 30 buses out of a total 121 buses entered service. This comes as part of the government’s efforts to renovate the authority’s bus fleet.

In November, the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) announced launching the smart electric bus system, where e-payment will be possible through a coalition including AOI, Wanxiang, United Investment Group, MwasalatMisr S.A.E., and other companies operating in the sector of smart solutions.

On the private sector side, Chairman of Factory 200 Yosry al-Nemr revealed that entering the sector of electric vehicles manufacturing has started with city buses to be followed in order by travel buses, private buses, minibuses, taxis and cars.

In a meeting with the Energy and Environment Committee at the House of Representatives, Nemr said that his establishment has taken the first steps to accomplish the strategy devised to deepen the local manufacturing of electric vehicles.

A deal was closed with a Chinese company in April to build a plant for manufacturing electric vehicles, and producing city buses.