LTA to add 660 more electric buses to Singapore’s public bus fleet by 2027

[The_King]

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.

 

 

In April 2024, the authority called for proposals on how to quickly remove a burnt electric bus from a multi-storey depot and submerge it in a water tank to prevent a fire from reigniting, in the event of such an incident.

Besides the fire suppression system, these new buses also need to be fitted with on-board surveillance systems to improve passenger and staff safety.

LTA said these surveillance systems should have collision detection and warning capabilities, so that other vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists in close proximity all around the bus can be spotted. Alerts will also be sounded to the driver.

These new buses will also be equipped with information display systems that can provide commuters with visual and audio information on their journeys.

The on-board information display systems must be able to show ad hoc announcements and information on rail replacement services or bridging bus services, among others.

The tender for these new buses will close at 4pm on May 22.

LTA said in a Facebook post that this tender supports its goal of a public bus fleet running on cleaner energy by 2040.

It added that it will be procuring more than 2,000 electric buses over the next five years.

The Straits Times previously reported that the Government plans to refresh Singapore’s public bus fleet so that half of them will run on batteries by 2030.

Correction note: An earlier version of this story stated that there will be 1,080 electric buses once the latest set of buses joins the fleet. This is incorrect. There will be 1,140 electric buses.