The second branch company of Shenzhen Bus Group recently disclosed that some of their electric buses made by Shenzhen Wuzhoulong Motors Group had suffered from battery decay only five years after being purchased, causing inconvenience to passengers and bus drivers.
Wuzhoulong said that the battery producer, OptimumNano Energy, a Shenzhen-based battery and new-energy company, failed to maintain the batteries on a timely basis due to a shortage of funds, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
According to a previous report, the bus company owns 60 Wuzhoulong electric buses, 12 of which have batteries that hardly last for 100 kilometers.
Take one bus line, M290, as an example, a round-trip journey for M290 is 47 kilometers, so the drivers need to recharge their buses after two round trips.
Shenzhen has approximately 20,000 electric buses in service. BYD, Nanjing Golden Dragon Bus and Wuzhoulong are the main providers of new-energy buses in Shenzhen.
According to Shenzhen Bus Group, 90 percent of the bus batteries are functioning normally, but some of the batteries in the BYD k9 and Wuzhoulong A10 buses don’t last as long as before and often need recharging.
Wuzhoulong responded saying the contract they signed was a tripartite agreement between Shenzhen Bus Group, Wuzhoulong, and Potevio, which is a new-energy company that rents batteries to Wuzhoulong.
Wuzhoulong is the automobile manufacture, and Potevio rents batteries to Wuzhoulong, but the company that is responsible for maintaining the batteries is in fact OptimumNano Energy. Wuzhoulong said it had already negotiated with OptimumNano Energy and promised to provide a solution as soon as possible.
However, some industry insiders have pointed out that battery decay is a common issue for electric vehicles (EV) and it is just a matter of time before the batteries begin to decay.
According to relevant regulations, the guarantee period for electric buses is eight years. The battery for new-energy buses should function well for eight years, but in reality, batteries start to decay after four years of use, said an insider surnamed Wu.