FTBCI 3-door Electric Bus for Singapore

FTBCI electric bus
Manufacturer	FTBCI
Years in operation	TBC
Operators	—
Technical Data
Length	12 metre
Motor	TBC
Battery	TBC
Accessibility	Low Floor
Emission Standard	Zero tailpipe emissions

An electric, low-floor single-deck bus with three doors was recently spotted in Singapore in November 2022. Built by Chinese manufacturer Fengtai BCI（厦门丰泰国际）, the bus bears the Lush Green livery of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) public bus fleet and comes fitted with three passenger doors.

The model name and specifications are not known and will be confirmed at a later date.

Background

Xiamen Fengtai Bus and Coach International (FTBCI) is a Chinese bus manufacturer. Established in 2011 as a joint venture between Fengtai Group and Australian bus supplier BCI, the company primarily builds buses and coaches for overseas export. Its core markets are Australia and New Zealand, where buses are typically badged as BCI buses. It is also a subsidiary of the Chinese powertrain manufacturer Weichai.

In the electric bus space, FTBCI had previously exported electric buses to the USA, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands.

As for the broader electric bus market in Singapore, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) last procured 60 electric buses in 2018. Having been built with LTA specifications in mind, this bus could be offered to LTA as a trial, in line with LTA’s ongoing efforts to rapidly electrify the public bus fleet. Half of all public buses will be electric by 2030, which is about 3,000 buses.

Early sightings

A video of the FTBCI electric bus was circulated on the social media site TikTok in late November 2022. The video, which shows the bus being offloaded from a trailer, was taken down shortly after upload.

The bus’ external appearance bears significant resemblance to the Ebusco 2.2, an electric bus offered by Dutch electric bus manufacturer Ebusco. As a partner of Ebusco, FTBCI assembles the Ebusco 2.2 in China, and the final 30% of assembly work is done in Deurne, Netherlands.

Other 3-Door electric buses in Singapore:

• BYD B12
• CRRC TEG6125BEV03
• LexSWITCH E12 SD
• Linkker LM312
• Volvo BZL – SC Neustar City
• Zhongtong LCK6126EVG

References:

• BCI’s baby born (busnews.com.au) [Accessed 28 Nov 2022]
• Citirider E | Bus & Coach International (bcibus.com.au) [Accessed 28 Nov 2022]
• CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES – BCI’S 2000TH OZ-DELIVERED BUS (busnews.com.au) [Accessed 28 Nov 2022]
• BCI-2021-Product-Book-Supplement-New-Range-Citirider-E.pdf (bcibus.com.au) [Accessed 28 Nov 2022]
• Australasian Bus & Coach 402 February 2021 by Prime Creative Media – Issuu [Accessed 28 Nov 2022]
• Ebusco 2.2 – Ebusco® [Accessed 1 Dec 2022]
• Ebusco celebrates 11th birthday with another order – CBW (cbwmagazine.com) [Accessed 1 Dec 2022]