Spotted this Metro Local Orange BEB Battery Electric Bus at UCLA yesterday, Metro Route 2 #10052 BYD K9MD 40' BEB Battery Electric Bus. Walked past it and noticed the charging rails on the roof. Wow! This is the first Metro Local Battery Electric Bus I've seen, so I pulled out my phone to take some pics. Didn't want to risk running back over the crosswalk to grab a front/near shot.
Unfortunately, it doesn't run down Westwood Blvd for u/ChrisBruin03 to spot. The other Metro BEBs I've seen are the silver BYD running on the J-Line. Guess these are the same type, just painted local orange?
For those of you who live/work around Westwood Boulevard/UCLA, there's a LADOT Westwood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project survey about improving Westwood Blvd. Popped up on Transit App.
They are the same type and just orange, yes. But operated out of division 2 and only on peak hour trips due to limited charging infrastructure. These are technically BYD K9MD-ER buses with a 200 mile range, versus the BYD K9MD buses which we have 5 of and have a smaller battery (10000-10004).
Where do they charge them at? I figured they were mostly going to be on the J, G lines because they have the cool pantograph lookin chargers but I’ve been seeing the BYD buses running down Hawthorne Blvd and Artesia Blvd in Torrance on separate occasions running different local routes. I assume those routes don’t have chargers at the ends.
They charge them overnight at the divisions the buses are assigned to. These new ones have enough battery to complete a decent number of service blocks now so unless it’s a very demanding line, like high speed or particularly long, the idea is that they won’t need mid-day charging
Yes, there are a handful of these running out of division 2 now, but only for peak hours because d2 only has slow chargers which take nearly 10 hours to fully recharge these things (d2 has 5x 50kW chargers but the battery on each of these buses is 450kwh so just under 10 hours from zero). We’ll likely see more of them (electric buses not necessarily BYDs) from Division 7 not that far down the line because the board just approved the start of the electrification project for D18 and D7 which will supposedly be done before the Olympics. Surprisingly, the charging infrastructure rollout seems to be more on track (ahead of schedule even) than actually getting new buses but the average fleet age is extremely high. D2 isn’t slated to get full electrification till post 2032 but as I write this, I’m realizing 2026 is less than a week away so.
We need to lobby at the board meetings for metro to purchase new buses instead of repeatedly delaying and cancelling bus procurements. It’s a massive waste of company time, which us taxpayers foot the bill for. We also need to fight for them to not purchase BYDs but rather electric buses from other manufacturers because BYD has been subject to massive slowdowns, quality issues, and political scandals which in turn paint electric buses as inherently bad when it’s just BYD ruining it all. Other LA area agencies such as Long Beach, Gtrans, and Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus all have much better relationships with bus manufacturers because they don’t alienate them the way Metro does by asking for ridiculous levels of customization.
This is going to be an absolute disaster during the Olympics as most of our bus fleet will be 10 years old, and more than half of it beyond its designed 12 year lifespan and buses are already breaking down left and right.
Spotted this Metro Local Orange BEB Battery Electric Bus at UCLA yesterday, Metro Route 2 #10052 BYD K9MD 40' BEB Battery Electric Bus. Walked past it and noticed the charging rails on the roof. Wow! This is the first Metro Local Battery Electric Bus I've seen, so I pulled out my phone to take some pics. Didn't want to risk running back over the crosswalk to grab a front/near shot.
Unfortunately, it doesn't run down Westwood Blvd for u/ChrisBruin03 to spot. The other Metro BEBs I've seen are the silver BYD running on the J-Line. Guess these are the same type, just painted local orange?
For those of you who live/work around Westwood Boulevard/UCLA, there's a LADOT Westwood Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project survey about improving Westwood Blvd. Popped up on Transit App.
https://ladotlivablestreets.org/projects/westwood
https://sur-vey.typeform.com/to/y6KJKPBm
They are the same type and just orange, yes. But operated out of division 2 and only on peak hour trips due to limited charging infrastructure. These are technically BYD K9MD-ER buses with a 200 mile range, versus the BYD K9MD buses which we have 5 of and have a smaller battery (10000-10004).
Don’t take away the orange! It’s such an iconic color for Metro.
Grey? Really, fucking grey.
Woah, never really expected any of these on the 2. Been the less-new 40 foot buses and the 45 foot buses on there for a long time now.
Yeah it’s a division 2 special
Looks like this one has more gray paint on both the top and bottom. Are any others like this?
Yes, 49 others. 50 of the 100 unit order will be painted in the local livery, so 10049-10099
they couldnt have picked a yellow or green they had to use ugly basic grey to represent electric 💀it doesnt compliment the orange at all😭😭
Where do they charge them at? I figured they were mostly going to be on the J, G lines because they have the cool pantograph lookin chargers but I’ve been seeing the BYD buses running down Hawthorne Blvd and Artesia Blvd in Torrance on separate occasions running different local routes. I assume those routes don’t have chargers at the ends.
They charge them overnight at the divisions the buses are assigned to. These new ones have enough battery to complete a decent number of service blocks now so unless it’s a very demanding line, like high speed or particularly long, the idea is that they won’t need mid-day charging
Yes, there are a handful of these running out of division 2 now, but only for peak hours because d2 only has slow chargers which take nearly 10 hours to fully recharge these things (d2 has 5x 50kW chargers but the battery on each of these buses is 450kwh so just under 10 hours from zero). We’ll likely see more of them (electric buses not necessarily BYDs) from Division 7 not that far down the line because the board just approved the start of the electrification project for D18 and D7 which will supposedly be done before the Olympics. Surprisingly, the charging infrastructure rollout seems to be more on track (ahead of schedule even) than actually getting new buses but the average fleet age is extremely high. D2 isn’t slated to get full electrification till post 2032 but as I write this, I’m realizing 2026 is less than a week away so.
We need to lobby at the board meetings for metro to purchase new buses instead of repeatedly delaying and cancelling bus procurements. It’s a massive waste of company time, which us taxpayers foot the bill for. We also need to fight for them to not purchase BYDs but rather electric buses from other manufacturers because BYD has been subject to massive slowdowns, quality issues, and political scandals which in turn paint electric buses as inherently bad when it’s just BYD ruining it all. Other LA area agencies such as Long Beach, Gtrans, and Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus all have much better relationships with bus manufacturers because they don’t alienate them the way Metro does by asking for ridiculous levels of customization.
This is going to be an absolute disaster during the Olympics as most of our bus fleet will be 10 years old, and more than half of it beyond its designed 12 year lifespan and buses are already breaking down left and right.
I hope the body/ride noise isn’t as bad as as other electric buses.