22 Bangkok Metro Cars Coming From Turkey's Bozankaya

A Turkish mass transportation giant said Wednesday that it will deliver its first cars to the Bangkok Mass Transit System by next year.



Speaking at a ceremony promoting a new factory in the capital Ankara's Sincan district, Bozankaya CEO Aytunc Gunay said the first set of four-wagon metro cars out of a planned 22 will be delivered to Bangkok authorities by 2018, with completion by 2019.



Last May, Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Company (BTSC) placed an order to the Siemens-Bozankaya consortium for 22 four-unit metro trains, including 16 years of service and maintenance by Siemens.



Stressing Bozankaya's success in bidding to build cities' electric bus fleets, Gunay said over 100 research and development engineers have been working on projects ranging from buses, tramcars, and light rail systems.



"Our first goal now is to win the Istanbul Municipality's 200-unit electric bus tender. There also some cities about to announce tenders for electric buses. We're currently working on them too," he said.



Bozankaya's "E-Karat" electric buses are currently serving the public in the Turkish cities of Konya, Eskisehir, and Izmir, Gunay added.



E-Karat buses have a minimum 200-km range thanks to 200 kWh Li Yttrium-Ion accumulators with such options as EBS, ECAS, tilting, pre-heater, speed-controlled servo steering etc. in the standard option package, according to Bozankaya's website.



The buses typically drastically cut the cost of transportation as electric engines are much more economical than gas-powered engines and the absence of transmission losses in these vehicles provide further savings. -