Chinese automotive conglomerate BYD has commissioned six electric buses in Japan. With this deployment, the company now has 500 electric buses operating on
LA Metro grounded their newest BYD K9Ms (used on their J line) from January 2026 to March 2026, to investigate an electric motor issue. Note that Toronto’s bus system retired their K9Ms as well, in 2025, after reliability issues.
I’m not just making this stuff up. It’s an area of active debate and of active concern. LA Metro has an open solicitation for 240 electric buses (one contract for 220 buses and one for 20). We’ll see if they go with BYD or New Flyer or someone else when those contracts get awarded this summer.
To the original comment’s point, though, I’m pretty sure the US surpassed 500 BYD buses before Japan did (I found a press release from 2019 announcing the 460th ordered), and it’s obviously been almost 7 years since then. I’m just not sure that they’re all still in service, given the struggles some of these transit agencies have had with incorporating them into their operations.
Not being felt today. BYD performance since then has made this less than a spec of dust.
LA Metro grounded their newest BYD K9Ms (used on their J line) from January 2026 to March 2026, to investigate an electric motor issue. Note that Toronto’s bus system retired their K9Ms as well, in 2025, after reliability issues.
I’m not just making this stuff up. It’s an area of active debate and of active concern. LA Metro has an open solicitation for 240 electric buses (one contract for 220 buses and one for 20). We’ll see if they go with BYD or New Flyer or someone else when those contracts get awarded this summer.
To the original comment’s point, though, I’m pretty sure the US surpassed 500 BYD buses before Japan did (I found a press release from 2019 announcing the 460th ordered), and it’s obviously been almost 7 years since then. I’m just not sure that they’re all still in service, given the struggles some of these transit agencies have had with incorporating them into their operations.