The LTA wants to be able to quickly and safely remove a burnt electric bus to prevent damage to other buses and assets.
Responding to queries, the LTA said that even though the risk of electric bus fires is low, it wanted to “explore different equipment” to manage battery fires because the nature of such fires is different from conventional ones. The LTA also said the additional equipment is meant to enhance existing fire mitigation measures such as water sprinklers and water curtains to prevent fire from spreading to other buses and parts of the depot.will start arriving from the second half of 2024, and an initial 60 buses were deployed in 2018 under a pilot scheme to test out the technology.
The software and design of EVs can detect and isolate faults in the batteries before a fire occurs. However, there have been reports of EV fires overseas. The LTA’s call did not specify the size of the equipment or water tank, but these would have to be able to cope with a double-deck electric bus, which weighs around 15,422kg – the weight of nearly 12 typical family sedans.S’pore to get 400 new electric buses: Is less air pollution worth the higher costs?