01
Origins
The TCe12 of 2017 took Yutong's electrification beyond city limits: a twelve-metre battery coach targeting the intercity and shuttle duties Europe was beginning to decarbonise, launched into Nordic and French markets as the continent's first volume electric coaches. Range and charging fitted contracted routes; pricing fitted procurement mathematics. For European operators the TCe12 was many organisations' first Chinese vehicle of any kind — the coach as diplomatic vanguard. Its quiet motorway miles opened the market position Yutong's later e-coach generations consolidated, while incumbent builders watched their home segment's future arrive on someone else's chassis. First vehicles open doors; the fleet behind them moves in permanently. Nordic winters were the sceptics' chosen test, and the fleets renewed their orders after the first one.
2017 Yutong TCe12 · Lucas Kendall · CC BY-SA 4.0
