CMC Thru Bus

The Thru Bus is an electric amphibious passenger vehicle developed and built in Taiwan by affiliates of the CMC Magnetics group, a company best known for optical discs. It was unveiled in November 2010, and its makers called it the world's first amphibious electric vehicle for public transport.

Design

The Thru Bus runs on nickel-zinc batteries. Company chairman Robert (Bob) Wong said these give less power than lithium cells but carry less risk of fire or explosion. An amorphous-silicon thin-film solar panel on the roof, made by CMC subsidiary Sun Well Technology, partly recharges the batteries. The maker quoted 90 km/h on land and 12 km/h on water. Reports give the seating as eight or nine passengers.

Service

Taipei's mayor took the maiden test ride in December 2010. From January 2011 the blue vehicles ran a scenic "Blue Highway" route across the Keelung River, between the Flora Expo's Dajia Riverside Park site and the Miramar shopping mall. Each 15-minute trip covered about 1 km by road and 2.5 km by water.

CMC put the price at about NT$4 million (around US$130,000). It planned to aim the vehicle mainly at China, where government subsidies for long electric vehicles encouraged it to consider larger, customised sightseeing versions.