Beijing 2022 electric buses hop on growing wave of sustainable transport in Beijing

Key members of Beijing Public Transportation Group, the organisationin charge of managing the city’s public transport system, unveiled today in Beijing’shistoric Qianmen district a special group of five 18-meter-long Beijing 2022 electricbuses. Containing batteries that only require 10 minutes to be recharged, these busesshowcase Beijing 2022’s commitment to sustainability including through the provision ofclean and green transportation across the city to both local residents and internationalvisitors.

These five special Beijing 2022 busesare modeled after twenty-onecompletely electric-run retro touristbuses - with little noise, zero emissions,and a low cost to maintain and operate.With a seating capacity of 40 per unitand including such modern features asUSB plugs for charging cell phones anda photo booth in the back, theseelectric buses run along a twenty-onestop route within Beijing’s historiccentral district, representing only asmall fraction of the approximately1,272 electric buses in Beijing servicedby 10 battery charging stations across the city.

A number that will only keep on increasing as back in December 2013, the BeijingCommission of Transport announced that, in an attempt to reduce vehicle emissionsand ease pollution on the long-term, the city will replace 80% of its buses with new energyand clean-fuel vehicles by the end of 2017 – a total of 13,825 buses, including4,058 electrically powered and 7,185 running on natural gas.

According to Liu Xing, Vice President of Zhuhai Yinlong Energy Co., Ltd, who helpeddesign and distribute the buses, these green vehicles symbolize a perfect synthesis ofBeijing’s past and future: "These buses have a retro design, being modeled after thetrolleys used in the early 20th century; at the same time, they are an integral part of thebright, clean future of sustainable transportation in both Beijing and China. Beijing2022’s commitment to sustainability will play a crucial role towards advocating thefuture of clean and green transportation in this city, and I could not be more optimisticat this time."

Last week, the Beijing Municipal Government’s Environmental Protection Bureauannounced that the average density of PM2.5 in Beijing dropped 19 percent in the firstfour months of 2015 compared with the same period last year. According to statisticscompiled by the Bureau, the average densities of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogendioxide also decreased by 12.3 percent, 43.1 percent and 13.7 percent respectively. Thecity has also seen 57 days of "fine" or "good" air quality, eight days more than the sameperiod last year.

Environmental authorities have taken the aforementioned statistics as signs that thecity’s strenuous, all-encompassing efforts to tackle pollution have begun to take effect.In March, Beijing shut down two sets of coal-burning power generation facilities of twoplants, in addition to taking nearly half a million old vehicles of city streets. The capital will continue to improve its energy structure to keep coal consumption under 15 milliontons, phase out another 200,000 vehicles and close more than 300 polluting factoriesthis year. Deputy Director of Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau Fang Li called it"the biggest move in the history" of the city’s pollution control efforts.

In order to spread awareness of these recent progresses, the city a few days agoappointed U.S. National Basketball Association and China Basketball Association star (aswell as MVP of the Beijing Ducks) Stephon Marbury as its official Beijing EnvironmentProtection Ambassador.

Beijing has also been seeking support from international experts on how to revert itscity back to the "bike paradise" it was in the 1980’s, where the two-wheeled modeenjoyed a 63% share of all transportation in the city. The Asian Development Bank isfunding the "Beijing Bicycle Strategy and Policy", which plans to raise Beijing’s bicycleshare of transportation to at least 20% by the year 2020. According to the DutchEmbassy in Beijing, two Dutch companies have presented their plans to assist the ChinaAcademy of Transportation Sciences in implementing the Strategy: leading renewableenergy consultancy Ecofys, as well as international engineering and projectmanagement consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV.

Bicycle transport expert at Royal HaskoningDHV said of the project: "Our vision forBeijing includes high quality bicycle routes and parking facilities, upgrading andextending the public bicycle sharing system, more trip destinations within bike-abledistances and integration of cycling with a high quality public transport system forcommuting."

For more information, contact:

Beijing-2022@beijing-2022.cn

(Ms) LIN Jie – linjie@beijing-2022.cn – T +86.10.8220.9719

(Ms) MA Ning – maning@beijing-2022.cn –T +86.10.8220.9720

(Ms) FREYTAG-TRAUT Sarah – sfreytag-traut@webershandwick.com - T +33.0.147593896

(Mr) STEVENS Alexander – AStevens@webershandwick.com - T +86.10.85692370

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