BYD Co., a leading Chinese electrified vehicle maker, said 246 electric buses it delivered to Dutch customer Keolis Nederland BV went into service in the Netherlands this month.
The fleet, comprising 12- and 13-meter-long buses with low floors, now operate in Dutch cities including Zwolle, Apeldoorn, Ede, Dedemsvaart, Vaassen, Harderwijk and Deventer.
The buses were mainly built at BYD’s assembly plant in Hungary. They are part of an order for 259 electric buses the company received in December 2019 from Keolis Nederland, the Dutch subsidiary of global public transport operator Keolis.
BYD said it will deliver the remaining 13 electric buses to Keolis Nederland next spring.
In Europe, BYD also operates electric bus assembly plants in France and the United Kingdom.
It has secured orders for more than 1,400 electric buses from European customers, BYD said.
Outside China, the Chinese company also assembles electric buses in California, Ecuador and Brazil.
BYD, headquartered in the south China city of Shenzhen, is listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai. It is partly owned by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett.
In the first 11 months, the company delivered 370,650 gasoline, full electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles globally, a drop of 11 percent from a year earlier. But electric bus sales soared 98 percent to 8,121 during the period.