Mexico City launches electric trolleybus tender

Servicio de Transporte Eléctricos (STE) has launched a tender for 50 battery-powered trolleybuses for use in Mexico City, which ends on 21 April. These will not be the first trolleybuses in the Mexican capital.

According to the invitation to tender, the buses will be articulated buses with an overhead line. The minimum requirements: 18 metres long, capacity to carry 140 passengers or more, at least 35 of whom must be seated. Besides, the vehicles are to be able to travel at least 25 kilometres without an overhead line – they must therefore still have an appropriate battery onboard for the required drive power.

The vehicles from the tender are to be used on a route that is used by 130,000 people every day. With the new line, the journey time between the Constitución de 1917 and Santa Marta is to be reduced from 36 to 21 minutes.

The operator STE had already put 63 battery-powered trolleybuses from the Chinese manufacturer Yutong into service at the end of 2019. However, Yutong cannot participate in the new tender with the model ordered at that time: The ZK5120C trolleybuses are only 12 meters long and offer a passenger capacity of only 90 passengers.

With reporting by Sebastian Schaal, Germany.

sustainable-bus.com, ste (tender)