DEFTECH to manufacture super quick charge EV buses

PETALING JAYA: DRB-HICOM Bhd’s wholly-owned subsidiary DRB-HICOM Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd (DEFTECH) will manufacture and maintain Malaysia’s first super quick charge (SQC) electric vehicle (EV), the Putra NEDO EV bus.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Perbadanan Putrajaya (PPj) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan for this project, which is part of a technology transfer arrangement via a government-to-government agreement between Malaysia and Japan.
NEDO is undertaken by a Japanese consortium that consists of Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corporation, PUES Corporation, Hasetec Corporation and Oriental Consultants Global Company Limited.
DEFTECH said in a statement earlier, it is expected to become the regional hub for the production of the SQC EV buses in all future expansions.
The SQC EV bus applies a different technology compared with other EV buses available in Malaysia. The SQC system only requires a single 10 minute charge between each run (average of 30km) via an overhead pantograph while other commercial EV buses generally require an overnight charge (estimated six to eight hours) to operate optimally.
To date, DEFTECH has been entrusted to manufacture 11 single decker EV buses. A total of eight buses have been supplied to PPj, which are already in operation, while the balance three units are scheduled to be delivered in 2018.
The Putra NEDO EV bus is operated by PPj’s wholly owned subsidiary Pengangkutan Awam Putrajaya Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd (Nadiputra), as part of its fleet that services the Putrajaya area.