KUALA LUMPUR: THE city of the future is here, and it is in Subang Jaya via a collaboration between government-owned Prasarana Malaysia Bhd and Sunway Group.

Under the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project undertaken by the two companies, fully-electric buses (e-buses) cruise through the neighbourhood on a dedicated elevated highway.

The combination of an elevated highway and e-buses are possibly the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.

Launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in June, the BRT service is a technological breakthrough.

At a cost of RM634 million, the service, known as the BRT Sunway Line, has a fleet of 15 buses, with stopovers at seven stations and a maximum capacity of ferrying 15,000 passengers a day.

Business Times recently sat down with Zulkifli Mohd Yusoff, chief executive officer (CEO) of Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd — a subsidiary of Prasarana — and Ahmad Hadri Haris, CEO of Malaysian Green Technology Corp (GreenTech Malaysia), the government entity that has been tasked to introduce green technology in Malaysia.

“Electricity and green technology, be it solar or hydro, are the energy of the future, and this is what we envision for Malaysia... for the country to position itself as a global hub for green technology by 2020 and subsequently as a green nation by 2030,” said Ahmad Hadri.

“We are so pleased that Prasarana and Sunway Group have taken the initiative to jointly develop the BRT under a public-private partnership as to usher the future of Malaysia.”

He said electricity and green technology are significantly cleaner and friendly for the environment, society and the world.

“We have just gone through bouts of terrible haze in this country with many blaming Indonesia for it, but what we haven’t taken into consideration is the carbon emissions from fossil fuel used in vehicles, which are also detrimental to our air quality.

“Air pollution has become a big problem that is hard to manage as the transportation sector is the biggest contributor to this... Global cities such as London, California and Shenzen have introduced e-buses to tackle this issue, and for Malaysia, we have Subang Jaya to take the lead,” said Ahmad Hadri.

Meanwhile, Zulkifli said Rapid Bus has some 2,000 buses servicing the Klang Valley, Penang and Pahang, but only 15 are electric.

“I am not surprised if one day we would go fully electric as green is the future, but for now it is hard to envision that given the cost of such buses.”

He said diesel buses cost between RM600,000 and RM700,000 each, but an e-bus costs a couple of million ringgit after taking into account foreign exchange pressures.

Maintenance for e-buses, however, is significantly cheaper than diesel buses, said Zulkifli.

“It is expensive at this point to buy e-buses because they come with a new technology… but as the government is targeting to have 2,000 e-buses in the country by 2020, we expect the price to decrease somewhat between now and then.”

He said Rapid Bus is currently in talks with Petaling Jaya City Council to have four e-buses servicing the area, and the Sabah government.

At the tabling of the 2016 Budget recently, the prime minister had announced a RM2.5 billion allocation for the development of two new BRT projects between Kuala Lumpur and Klang, of which works are expected to commence next year, and in Kota Kinabalu.

“Representatives from the Sabah government had visited the BRT Sunway Line and have voiced their interest to have the same technology for Kota Kinabalu,” said Zulkifli.

He said the e-buses can ferry up to 15,000 passengers a day, but since August, it has only registered some 6,000 ridership a day.

“We offered free rides for the first two months after its launch, in June and July, and saw some 12,000 passengers a day, but ridership has fallen to some 6,000 a day since we began charging in August.

“We believe this is because only one stop is connected to the Keretapi Tanah Melayu, and this is at the Sunway–Setia Jaya Line,” said Zulkifli.

He added that these days, it is all about integrated transportation systems.

“People drive to train stations, take the train, get off and get on the BRT — the more integrated our lines, the better our ridership.”

The next integrated BRT-KTM line would be the USJ7 Line, slated to be completed in June next year.

Both Ahmad Hadri and Zulkifli are excited about the potential of e-buses in creating their own comprehensive ecosystem.

An e-bus can last up to 10 years, but its batteries which admittedly are the most expensive part of the bus can last up to 15 years.

These batteries can then go on a second life and be used to generate power for a small house or the likes.

“In fact, I feel it would be prudent for Prasarana to set up a new company in next 10 years to just cater to selling these second-hand batteries,” said Ahmad Hadri.

At the rate Malaysia is going in developing its green technology, he is confident that there will be a market for such batteries in the next 10 years.

“We are living in a very exciting time where we could foresee the world stop relying on fossil fuels and tap green energy instead. “

Of course, these are early days and we have a long way to go, but with the backing of the government, we are definitely on the right track to usher a new, cleaner future for Malaysia,” said Ahmad Hadri.

Fully elevated with a distance of 5.4km, the BRT Sunway Line are serviced by 15 e-buses.

With a top speed of 80kph, the e-buses are fully equipped with universal access facilities and can take 67 passengers with 25 seated.

They also come with free WiFi. The seven stations are Sunway-Setia Jaya, Mentari, Lagoon, SunMed, SunU-Monash, South Quay and USJ7.

The SunU-Monash station houses the “park ‘n ride” facilities with 1,153 parking bays, including 102 for women drivers and 23 for special-need persons.