King Long Pure-Electric Public Buses under Successful Operation in Harbin

In this winter, all regions nationwide experienced cold weathers. Harbin, the “City of Ice”, experienced a once-in-30-year extremely cold weather, with the minimum air temperature approaching -40ºC.

Yue Hong, the Heilongjiang Market Business Manager of King Long, was a little mentally disturbed by such extreme weathers.

Delivered to Harbin Songbei Transport Company in September, fifty 10.5m pure-electric buses experienced such extremely cold weathers. On January 15, in which the minimum air temperature of Harbin approached -38ºC, Yue Hong visited Songbei Transport Company to understand the operation status of vehicles in such extremely cold weathers and the improvement suggestions of the vehicles. He was really unexpected about the customer’s reply “These buses are good and the daily attendance rate for our bus route 213 is 100%. The working temperature of the batteries is stable and the charging is same as usual in the coldest days. We received no complaint from passengers. For the improvement of vehicles, our suggestion is not to make any improvement or modification. This status is really good and we are afraid that the improvements will probably cause new problems. We also want to order more 30 buses.”

In 2017, Hulan Public Bus Company purchased 40 King Long pure-electric buses for bus routes 551 and 553, both of which the total driving distance is 75km. “In such cold days, most traditional buses in Harbin need to preheat twice for start at nighttime, in order to prevent influencing the normal operations in the morning. Some batteries for pure-electric buses failed to start and some batteries drop ped fast in power. However, for our purchased 40 King Long pure-electric buses, the batteries could be fully charged as usual and could start fast and operate steadily, without any charging or start problem or power drop problem. The attendance rate is also 100%.” The person in charge of Hulan Public Bus Company told the reporter.

Yue Hong was finally relieved that the products passed the test of cold weathers.

For a long time, the lithium battery equipped on new energy vehicles is criticized as vulnerable to both low temperature and high temperature. Whether the battery can be maintained under relatively “ideal status” by vehicle part technologies manifests the bus manufacturer’s level in pure-electric vehicle technologic capability.

The person in charge of the King Long Engineering Research Institute said frankly: “The cold temperature is always the enemy for popularization of pure-electric vehicles. The cold temperature can result in deteriorated battery performance, difficult battery charging and discharging, difficult vehicle start, and remarkably shortened driving range. How to handle effectively is an inevitable breakthrough point for the R&D of new energy vehicles.”

As early as March 6, 2016, King Long and Tianjin Automotive Quality Test and Inspection Center performed one-month pure-electric vehicle low temperature test for 2 King Long pure-electric buses in Mohe, the northernmost place of China.

King Long pure-electric buses effectively solved the battery problem caused by low temperature. According to Yue Hong’s introduction, King Long pure-electric buses are additionally installed with intelligent power battery water heater and battery cell heating system especially for northeast market. The water heating system is independent from the battery and consumes no battery power so that the internal temperature is as warm as spring during the operations in winter. The battery cell heating system can improve the charging performance and charging capacity of battery on one hand and can stabilize the working temperature and maintain the best working temperature for the battery to effectively solve the problems under extremely cold weathers on the other hand. In addition, the ECO-Chip new energy management system and King Long cloud wisdom service platform developed independently by King Long make the pure-electric bus operation management more intelligent and efficient.

“Some counterparts asked me why spending so much money purchasing King Long bus. I told them that you get what you pay. King Long bus is good and the service is also good. We drive them with ease and also save money. The average electricity consumption is 0.85kW.h per kilometer.” The person in charge of Hulan Public Bus Company told the reporter.

“Our pure-electric buses have been proved by the market. We are really confident in the new year. In 2018, the northeast market will be our spring provided that the policy is clear.” Yue Hong said confidently.

By means of the actual operations and the word-of-mouth, besides the successful delivery of more than 1,000 pure-electric public buses in Fujian, at present, more and more public bus users, especially the users in extreme cold regions, understood and selected King Long buses. Nowadays, King Long pure-electric public buses were put into operation in batch consecutively in Mudanjiang, Jixi, and Qitaihe, Heilongjiang and, with excellent performances under extremely cold weathers, won the extensive appraisal from the customers and passengers.