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Acoording to sources, the first solar electric bus, manufactured by Nanjing Golden Dragon, will roll off line in Lishui, Nanjing in May 2015.
In recent years, Nanjing Golden Dragon has persistently persue innovation on bus models and technology. Last year, the bus makers starts R&D of solar electric bus.
The solar electric hybrid bus is built based on traditional electric bus. The bus will switch to be powered by electric when solar power is not sufficient. With an area of 15 ㎡, the solar photovoltaic panel is equipped on the bus roof to charge the bus in the sun both when the bus is running or parked.
It is calculated that the bus can cover about 30 km once fully charged, which is the longest mileage for current solar bus.
The price of the solar electric bus will be 100,000 yuan or so higher than pure electric buses, mainly because of the cost of solar panel and converter. The life span of a solar panel is expected to at least 8 years, which is about the same of a tourism bus, so there is normally no need to replace the solar panel if no fault.