Villarrica adopts electromobility for public transport
It will be one of the first cities in Chile to have 100% electric buses.
Electromobility continues to reach regions, and now Villarrica is the latest city that will have 100% electric public transport, just as will be the case in Copiapó and Ovalle.
The Transportation and Telecommunications Minister, Juan Carlos Muñoz, together with regional and local authorities, presented the electromobility project in the lake municipality, visiting the site where one of the two charging centers that will power the electric buses, key infrastructure for the service's implementation, will be built.
Villarrica, which was the first city outside of the capital to have a regulated service, will have 50 high-standard electric buses, with USB chargers, segregated cab for drivers, air conditioning and universal accessibility, among other features.
These buses will also allow for the extension of territorial and hourly coverage, since there will be 5 services that will operate between 6 am and 10 pm, with frequencies in peak periods of no less than 4 vehicles/hour on a working day.
The project will benefit about 50,000 people living in Villarrica and thousands of other tourists during the summer seasons.
Furthermore, it will allow for the implementation of electronic ticket payment using rechargeable cards, similar to those being used in Chillán and those soon to be introduced in Punta Arenas.
According to Minister Muñoz, these buses represent an ostensible improvement in the municipality residents’ quality of life, since they are environmentally friendly machines, that emit 60% less noise than diesel buses.