The bus took to the streets with regular customers on Monday,taking on route 254 between Capalaba and Wellington Point.
Transdev chief engineer Marc Cleave said the bus performed well during the trial period,and he was confident it could handle regular use ferrying passengers around Brisbane and its surrounds.
“It’s got the range,it can travel around 300 kilometres on a single charge,and all the routes we’ve had it on initially it’s had no problems,” he said.
“It’s a straight match[to diesel buses],it just slots right into the fleet with the same operational capacity.”
Transdev Australasian head of bus operations Ian Craig said the launch of the Brisbane bus came off the back of a similar vehicle being put on the streets of Sydney,as well as in other countries,and showed the company was not treating the technology as a novelty.
“This is not a test case or a prototype,this is the future,now,and we’re confident it can perform at an equivalent standard to a diesel bus,” Mr Craig said.
“We’ve demonstrated this technology by investing our own cash in it. It’s here now,and it’s the future now that we want to promote to government and show that public transport can be decarbonised.”