Small electric bus made by world’s biggest bus maker approved for sale in Australia

Last year, Yutong, the world’s largest manufacturer of buses and coaches, unveiled its latest all-electric bus model, the E7S minibus, at the Bus & Coach Show in Brisbane.

Now, according to a regulatory filing, the same electric bus model is getting closer to going on sale in Australia, having received approval for two variants. 

These were first spotted by Roland from Zappedau and shared on X, and include a 14 and 17-seat variant, which is set to be available locally.

The E7S has a tare weight of 6,350 kg for the 17-seat variant, while having a gross vehicle mass of 8,500 kg.

Not a lot is known about the local specifications but variants of the bus in international markets show that it is 6.96 metres in length and features a 163 kWh battery pack, providing up to 300 km of range.

This is likely to be supplied by the world’s biggest battery manufacturer, CATL, which Yutong has signed a new 10-year strategic cooperation framework agreement in 2022.

CATL also announced its latest Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LFP) electric bus battery last year, which has a one-million-kilometre warranty and a service life of up to 15 years, or 1.5 million kilometres.

Although the bus has 17 seats, it can carry up to 35 passengers, making it suitable for various applications.

These buses would be ideal for inner city and suburban routes, featuring side door with an accessible wheelchair ramp.

Yutong also estimated 95% market share in China and 10% globally, announced that it was going to focus on Australia and the Asia-Pacific market.

At the unveiling of the model in Brisbane last year, the Yutong management team revealed that the E7S is the 18th all-electric bus model Yutong has developed as part of what they call their ‘New Energy Buses’, which covers petrol-electric, PHEV, hydrogen fuel-cell, and all-electric models.

These models are based on Yutong Electric Architecture (YEA), which according to the company is the first electric vehicle-specific platform in the commercial vehicle industry that “seamlessly integrates software and hardware to meet all-scenario needs of buses.”

As of September 2024, the company had delivered more than 190,000 of these New Energy buses gloablly. 

Yutong’s CEO of Asia-Pacific, Kent Chang, then told The Driven that while they want to offer their customers a range of New Energy vehicles, 80% of the interest has gone to the all-electric models.

We look forward to the local launch of Yutong E7S, and other electric bus offerings hitting our shores later in the coming years, as Australia deserves cleaner public transport, like many other developed countries.

Yutong’s ES7 showcased in Italy on YouTube.