EGEB: Moscow will have 1,000 electric buses by the end of 2021

• Moscow’s Department of Transport says all of its public transport vehicles will be electric by 2032.
• Smart electric motor company Turntide Technologies completes an $80 million funding round.
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Moscow’s e-public transport push

Moscow currently runs around 600 electric public buses on 33 bus routes – the largest e-bus fleet in Europe ahead of London. The city says it will increase its electric bus fleet to 1,000 by the end of 2021. Moscow’s Department of Transport (DOT) says that the Russian capital will expand its fleet of electric buses to more than 2,000, and reach a total of 2,675 units of e-transport, in the next four years. (The city also has an extensive tram network that it will electrify.)

Moscow’s DOT said in a statement sent to Electrek that all of its public transport vehicles will be electric by 2032. It also said that the use of e-buses on Moscow routes reduced the volume of emissions polluting the air by 400 tons in 2020. (That’s 78.4 passenger vehicles driven for one year, according to an EPA equivalency calculator.)

For comparison, New York City, population of 8.4 million, has a plan to acquire 500 new electric buses to serve all five boroughs by 2024. It has a total of 4,373 public buses – the world’s largest bus fleet.

Reuters reports:

‘They are also buying new, more power-efficient trams, which is a good thing,’ said Mikhail Babenko, head of the green economy program at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Russia.

Babenko said there was still a long way to go, however, when it came to Muscovites changing their own behavior and turning their backs on cars in favor of greener alternatives.

Denis Endachev, CEO for information and intelligent systems at the State Research Center of the Russian Federation (NAMI), said:

For a large city with dense traffic and a population of more than 12.6 million people, even a partial transition to e-transport can result in positive changes to air quality.

Turntide Technologies completes $80M

Sunnyvale, California-headquartered Turntide Technologies, a smart electric motor company, today announced the completion of an $80 million funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $180 million.

The round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion fund founded in 2016 and led by Bill Gates, and includes investments from Robert Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition Ventures, the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Keyframe Capital, Fifth Wall, and Captain Planet LP.  

Turntide plans to expand development and production of its Smart Motor System to meet growing demand and extend it into new applications with the new funding. Turntide’s patented, cloud-connected switched reluctance motor can power anything using a fraction of the energy of the legacy AC induction motors in 98% of the world’s machines. This video explains how Turntide’s Smart Motor System works:

Companies including Amazon, BMW, Five Guys, Sprouts, and JLL have retrofitted old motors with the  Smart Motor System, reducing their HVAC motor energy consumption by 64% on average. Turntide also works with Pacific Energy Concepts, providing their Smart Motor System for HVAC solutions.

Steve Levin, cofounder with Robert Downey Jr. of FootPrint Coalition Ventures, said:

Turntide’s technology and approach to restoring  our planet will directly reduce energy consumption.

We are interested in supporting companies with innovative and sustainability-focused ideas like Turntide’s Smart Motor System. This technology has the potential to improve the planet in a  meaningful way, and we look forward to supporting their efforts.

Photo: Moscow Department of Transport