360 new 3-door electric buses procured by LTA

On 25 November 2023, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that 360 new electric buses would be procured, in contracts worth $166.4 million. Awarded to two manufacturers, this is the largest order of electric buses to date in Singapore.

Buses Awarded to Contract sum
1 240 single-deck electric buses
(BYD B12 / Depot charging)
BYD (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. S$108.1 million
2 120 single-deck electric buses
(Bus model TBC / Depot charging)
Cycle & Carriage Automotive Pte. Ltd.
(partnered with Zhongtong Bus)
S$58.3 million

The procurement tender, titled Procurement of single deck electric buses (Reference no.: PT601), was published on 27 March 2023. The LTA lists a full-low-floor layout with three doors and two wheelchair bays as necessary features for buses being provided under this tender.

LTA said the contracts include an option for the authority to buy up to 60 more electric buses if needed.

In addition, the LTA also awarded a separate tender, titled Electric Vehicles Charging System (EVCS) for Electric Buses (Reference no.: BD401), for installing charging infrastructure at various bus depots and bus interchanges to support the procurement of these buses.

Chargers Awarded to Contract sum
1 EV chargers at Sengkang West and East Coast Bus Depots Busways Pte Ltd/Shell Singapore Pte Ltd Consortium S$31.3 million
2 EV chargers at Gali Batu Bus Depot Presico Engineering Pte Ltd S$14.8 million

No chargers at bus interchanges were awarded, pointing to LTA’s preference for depot charging over pantograph charging used by the Linkker LM312. The quantity of charging piles at each depot, and output power specifications for these chargers, were also not announced.

The procurement of these electric buses and chargers represents another step towards Singapore’s public transport electrification goals, which aim for half of all public buses to be electric by 2030.

Background on Electric Buses in Singapore: Electric Buses in Singapore | Land Transport Guru


Tender Background

On 3 March 2023, at the Ministry of Transport’s (MOT) Committee of Supply (COS) Debate 2023, Minister for Transport S Iswaran announced that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will launch a tender in March 2023 for about 400 electric buses to replace diesel buses reaching the end of life from December 2024.

The tender, titled Procurement of single deck electric buses (Reference no.: PT601), was called on 27 March 2023. The tender closed on 3 Jul 2023, at 4:00 pm after an extension of 2 weeks.

According to contract specifications published on the government procurement portal GeBIZ, the LTA requires that bus suppliers have relevant expertise and experience in the manufacture and supply of electric buses. The following requirements were also listed:

  1. Compliance with Road Traffic (Motor Vehicles, Construction and Use) Rules;
  2. Right-hand drive electric buses;
  3. One entrance and two exits;
  4. Low-floor bus interior; and
  5. Provision of two (2) wheelchair bays.

Chargers

The LTA also prepared a separate tender, titled Electric Vehicles Charging System (EVCS) for Electric Buses (Reference no.: BD401), for installing charging infrastructure at various bus interchanges and depots to support the procurement of these buses.

The awarding of the tender on 25 November 2023 revealed that Sengkang West, East Coast and Gali Batu Bus Depots were selected for charger installation, with Sengkang West and Gali Batu expected to be completed by 2024, and East Coast expected to be completed by 2025.

No bus interchanges were selected for charger installation.

Rollout

LTA said the new electric buses will be progressively deployed for passenger service from December 2024. However, a full rollout timeline has not been provided.

Award Criteria

According to the LTA, tender submissions were evaluated based on a two-envelope process which looked at both quality and price factors. The price envelopes were only opened after the quality evaluation was completed, which meant that LTA awarded contracts to tenderers with high-quality and value-for-money proposals. Criteria such as the tenderer’s experience, track record, technical specifications of the proposed bus and compliance with local regulations, were factored into the quality evaluation.

Both electric bus tenderers – BYD (Singapore) and Cycle & Carriage Automotive (partnered with Zhongtong Bus) – are established bus suppliers.

For the charging system tender, the quality evaluation took into account the contractor’s project management plans and track record, as well as the technical aspects of the design and deployment of charging systems, which include compliance to Singapore’s technical standards, as well as service support for operations and maintenance. The charging systems will be equipped with smart charging functions to optimise charging speeds and duration. In addition, they will also incorporate additional features such as real-time monitoring, diagnostic, control and reporting.

Background – First eBus Tender
Background on first electric bus tender (Click to expand)
In December 2017, the first small-scale electric bus tender was launched by LTA under Contract PT323, titled Procurement of Electric Buses (E-Buses). A total of 60 electric buses and supporting charging infrastructure were procured through this tender.

Bus Model / Qty Tenderer Bus type Charging Mode
BYD K9 (20 units) BYD (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Single-deck Depot charging
Linkker LM312 (20 units) ST Engineering Land Systems Single-deck Opportunity charging
Yutong E12 (10 units) Yutong-NARI Consortium Single-deck Depot charging
Yutong E12DD (10 units) Double-deck

Charging infrastructure for these electric buses was also provided by the various electric bus tenderers.

Bus Model / Qty Charging Mode Charging Manufacturer Installed Locations
BYD K9 (20 units) Depot charging (150kW CCS2) ABB Seletar Bus Depot
Linkker LM312 (20 units) Opportunity charging
(450kW OppCharge / Pantograph)
ABB Bedok ITH
Bukit Panjang ITH
Yutong E12 (10 units) Depot charging (90kW CCS2) NARI Bulim Bus Depot
Loyang Bus Depot
Yutong E12DD (10 units)

The operational and technical insights from this initial pilot rollout would support the rollout of more electric buses from the new tender.

Background – SG Green Plan 2030 & LTMP 2040

This tender would contribute to Singapore’s public transport electrification goals, including:


Tenderers

As of the tender closing time, bids were submitted by 18 parties as follows, in which 8 tenderers were shortlised thereafter for this tender.

No. Tenderer Name Shortlist Awarded
1 ABS Bus Pte. Ltd.
2 Bamford Bus Company Limited
(Trading as Wrightbus)
3 BYD (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Shortlisted 240 Buses
4 China Dynamics New Energy Technology Company Limited
(a wholly subsidiary of Ev Dynamics (Holdings) Limited)
5 Cycle & Carriage Automotive PTE Limited
(partnered with Zhongtong Bus)
Shortlisted 120 Buses
6 EV Motors China Co., Limited
7 Goldbell Engineering Pte Ltd
8 Hong Seh Evolution Pte. Ltd. Shortlisted
9 Lexbuild Motors Pte. Ltd. Shortlisted
10 Liannex Corporation (S) Pte Ltd Shortlisted
11 Precision Technologies Pte Ltd
12 Rushowl Singapore Pte. Ltd.
13 Scania Singapore Pte. Ltd.
14 ST Engineering Mobility Services Pte. Ltd. Shortlisted
15 Tron Bradbury Energy (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
16 Volvo Group Singapore (Pte.) Ltd. Shortlisted
17 Weichai Singapore Pte. Ltd.
18 Yutong International Trade Pte. Ltd. Shortlisted

In addition to some automotive brands tendering under their own names like BYD, Volvo and Yutong, others are represented by local partners, such as Ankai (under Hong Seh), Foton (under Goldbell), and Zhongtong (under Cycle & Carriage).

Price Schedule

Price schedules for the following shortlisted tenderers were published, representing the unit prices (per bus) based on an order quantity of 50 or 100 buses.

No. Tenderer Name Unit price (S$)
(50 buses)
Unit price (S$)
(100 buses)
3 BYD (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. 450,350 450,350
5 Cycle & Carriage Automotive PTE Limited
(partnered with Zhongtong Bus)
489,150 489,150
8 Hong Seh Evolution Pte. Ltd. 600,350 590,350
9 Lexbuild Motors Pte. Ltd. 595,850 593,850
10 Liannex Corporation (S) Pte Ltd 665,250 638,050
14 ST Engineering Mobility Services Pte. Ltd. 628,350 (Base)
808,350 (Alternative)
613,350 (Base)
798,350 (Alternative)
16 Volvo Group Singapore (Pte.) Ltd. 700,338 (Base)
1,012,698 (Alternative)
681,238 (Base)
1,000,238 (Alternative)
18 Yutong International Trade Pte. Ltd. 613,350 596,350

All unit prices are inclusive of a S$350 reimbursable bus registration fee.

For the successful tenderers BYD and Cycle & Carriage (Zhongtong), the awarded sum of S$108.1 million and S$58.3 million represents a unit cost per bus of roughly S$450,400 and S$485,800 respectively, closely mirroring the unit prices offered for 100 buses.

No information is known regarding the differences between Base and Alternative bids proposed by ST Engineering and Volvo Group.


Commentary – Winning tenderers

BYD is an established electric vehicle manufacturer with various models of electric buses already operating in Singapore. The firm previously supplied 20 BYD K9 (Gemilang) buses to LTA under an earlier LTA eBus tender awarded in 2018, and 4 BYD C6 midibuses are leased to Tower Transit (previously SMRT) for operation on Bus Service 825. A double-deck electric bus, the BYD K9RC demonstrator (registered SG4005Z), is presently undergoing evaluation trials with SBS Transit.

According to BYD, the company will supply the BYD B12 bus for the LTA tender [Facebook Link]. The B12 bus range is BYD’s latest offering, with ComfortDelGro Bus recently purchasing ten BYD B12A03 buses as campus shuttle buses for NUS and NTU. These buses are configured as full-low-floor buses with three doors, making them well-suited to LTA requirements. Another BYD B12A03 demonstrator bus (registered SG4013A) is being offered to LTA for trials, and has yet to begin passenger service.

For Zhongtong, a Zhongtong LCK6126EVG (N12) demonstrator (registered SG4010H) is presently on trial with LTA.

Zhongtong also secured volume orders from ComfortDelGro Bus, with 35 Zhongtong N12 buses used as campus shuttle buses at NUS and NTU. These buses are configured as full-low-floor buses with two or three doors. Another Zhongtong N12 is in service with Tong Tar Transport.

The exact bus model which will be provided to LTA under Contract PT601 remains to be confirmed.


Commentary – Replacement Buses

LTA mentioned that these new electric buses procured would replace diesel buses reaching their 17-year statutory lifespan. These diesel buses are very likely to be Scania K230UB (Euro IV) buses, whose statutory lifespan would end between October 2024 – January 2026.

A total of 500 Scania K230UB (Euro IV) buses were procured by SBS Transit in 2006 (100 units; Batch 1) & 2007 (400 units; Batch 2), excluding a single demonstrator unit.

97 Scania K230UB (Euro IV) buses were retired early in January 2022 as part of a new Framework Agreement announced by SBS Transit and LTA in November 2021, in tandem with the transition of the Downtown Line to the New Rail Financing Framework Version 2. This leaves about 400 more Scania K230UB (Euro IV) buses on the roads as of March 2023, which matches LTA’s plans to procure 400 additional electric buses.

Concurrently, the Mercedes-Benz OC500LE buses would reach their 17-year statutory lifespan starting from June 2025. A total of 134 buses were registered between June 2008 and October 2009.

Commentary – Trial Buses

In recent months, many bus manufacturers have offered electric buses to LTA for trial purposes. This signifies strong interest from bus manufacturers worldwide in offering their products to the rapidly-emerging Singapore electric bus market. As a result, it is expected that this tender will see many bids from interested parties.

The following list includes 3-door buses designed for the Singapore market but yet to be offered to LTA for trial, or commenced revenue service.

As of 25 Oct 2023:

eBus Model Registration Units acquired Type Bus Operator Years in Operation
Ankai G9
SG4009M 1 3-Door SD SMRT –
BYD B12A03
SG4013A 1 3-Door SD SBST 2023-
BYD K9RC
SG4005Z 1 2-Door DD SBST 2022–
CRRC TEG6125BEV03
SG4006X 1 3-Door SD GAS 2021–2023
FTBCI FBC6120BRS7
SG4012C 1 3-Door SD GAS 2023–
MAN e-Bus
TBC TBC 3-Door SD –
LexSWITCH E12 SD TBC TBC 3-Door SD –
Scania e-Bus TBC TBC 2-Door SD
Volvo BZL – SC Neustar City SG4007T 1 3-Door SD TTS 2023–
Zhongtong LCK6126EVG SG4010H 1 3-Door SD GAS 2023–

As of the time of this article’s publication (4 Mar 2023), the BYD K9RC (SG4005Z) was still undergoing trials with SBS Transit, while the CRRC TEG6125BEV03 (SG4006X)’s trial with Go-Ahead Singapore had concluded. The Volvo BZL – SC Neustar City (SG4007T) was registered with Tower Transit but had yet to enter passenger service.


Charging Infrastructure at new Bus Depots

Under Contract BD401 – Electric Vehicles Charging System (EVCS) for Electric Buses, which was called on 27 March 2023 for charging infrastructure at upcoming new bus depots & integrated transport hubs to support these electric buses.

The awarding of the tender on 25 November 2023 revealed that Sengkang West, East Coast and Gali Batu Bus Depots were selected for charger installation, with Sengkang West and Gali Batu expected to be completed by 2024, and East Coast expected to be completed by 2025.

No bus interchanges were selected for charger installation.


Related Articles

Edit log
Date Article Title
4 Mar 2023 LTA to procure about 400 Electric Buses
25 Nov 2023 360 new electric buses procured by LTA

References

 

20 thoughts on “360 new 3-door electric buses procured by LTA

  • 9 March 2024 at 10:36 PM
    Permalink

    Seriously if im the decision maker i would opt for 300 single deckers,450 double deckers(14.0m 3 door) MAN A95 Euro 6 and 100 bendy buses exclusive for airport and feeder supplemental.

    Reply
  • 6 January 2024 at 9:27 PM
    Permalink

    Based on evidence in recent years, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will only procure fully electric buses in order to have a 100% fully electric public bus fleet in Singapore by 2040.

    Reply
  • 12 December 2023 at 9:28 PM
    Permalink

    Seriously if im the decision maker i would opt for 220 single deckers,130 double deckers(12.5m 3 door) and 40 bendy buses exclusive for airport and feeder supplemental.

    Reply

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