Iran Begins Mass Production of Electric Buses
The mass production of first Iranian electric bus called e-Atros began in an inuaguration ceremony at Iran Khodro Diesel (IKD) company which was attended by Iran’s industry minister, CEOs of Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO) and IKD companies.
Addressing the ceremony, Alimardan Azimi, the IKCO CEO stated that the electrification of cars has been pursued in the world as a goal.
“Fuel consumption has increased significantly, and this increase in fossil fuel consumption comes with a lot of problems such as air pollution, which will cause irreparable damage to the country,” he added.
The IKCO CEO further said that Iran Khodro company has producing electric cars on agenda, saying, "We also have manufacturing of the Tara hybrid car on the agenda, a plan that has witnessed 40% progress so far. With the measures taken, it is expected to take 1.5 years to commercialize the production of electric cars in this automobile industry. However, until then we have to import electric cars.”
“In accordance with industry ministry’s plan, measures have been taken to import electric vehicles for use in public transportation. We will also import the know-how and indigenize it,” Azimi went on to say.
Later in the inauguration ceremony, Javad Tavasolimehr, the CEO of IKD, pointed out that suitable infrastructure has been prepared for producing diesel cars, adding, "Since 2019, we have witnessed a production leap in the IKD. In the meantime, we have been able to increase the quality of the manufactured products. Last year, we were able to break the production record of the last 64 years in this company and continue to increase the production, as well as reduce the arrears of the company from 20% to 4%.”
For the production of the e-tros electric bus, the Atros diesel bus production halls were utilized, equipped with some special instruments to install the battery, engine and close the electrical connections.
Operating on high-powered engine with a power of 350 kW and a peak torque of 3,500 Nm, this public transportation vehicle has very high initial power and velocity and also comes with higher performance than the diesel models of the engine. The IKD electric bus can also be connected to the remote control center using the telecommunication platform, which not only allows monitoring the performance of the vehicles parts, it also will notify the driver to prevent and fix possible software and hardware flaws. Moreover, it allows all buses to link to each other through the data center. For the first time in Iran, the concept of ‘intelligent connected cars’ has become operational in commercial vehicles.
The e-Atros electric bus has a 20% incline capability, a capacity of 80 passengers, and energy recovery when braking and moving downhill, and its is fully recharged in about three hours. With a battery capacity of 350 kilowatt hours, it can travel up to about 250 km.
Unveiled in March 2022, the Iranian-manufactured e-Atros is a 12-meter electric bus suitable for inner-city use. This first Iranian electric bus was produced in accordance with international standards and advanced technologies and was introduced to the country's public transportation market as the most powerful domestically produced electric bus with the highest battery storage.
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