SINGAPORE – The Land Transport Authority (LTA) called a tender for 660 new electric buses, comprising 360 three-door single-deck buses and 300 three-door double-deckers, on March 14.
The authority expects these new buses to be delivered progressively by the end of 2027.
Once these new electric buses join the fleet, the total number of buses running on batteries here will go up to 1,140. In December 2024, there were around 5,800 public buses in all.
The new tender comes after the authority purchased 360 new electric single-deck buses for $166.4 million in November 2023, in contracts awarded to Chinese automaker BYD and Cycle & Carriage Automotive.
And in October 2024, LTA said it had purchased another 60 more electric buses from BYD.
According to tender documents published on government procurement portal GeBiz, contractors have to equip the buses with an automatic fire suppression system that can detect and put out fires in specific areas.
If a fire is detected on the bus, the system will be activated to produce an audio and visual alarm on the driver’s dashboard, in addition to reducing the speed of the bus to a speed that allows it to move to the side of the road, noted LTA.