Almost three months of testing have not been enough for the electric minibus designed by the Armed Forces in Sancti Spíritus to stop being an experiment. The prototype of the vehicle, announced With hype and cymbals by the official press in April, it is about to enter rough terrain for its operation: the blackout season.
Those who manage to get on the eleven-seater minibus now wonder how the authorities will manage to propel the vehicle in the hottest months, with an overwhelming deficit in electricity and the multitude of passengers waiting to be picked up on the busiest route in the city. city: from El Chambelón to the hospitals, through the Central Highway.
The vehicle does not have solar panels but a generic charger – it incorporates energy very slowly – and a jumble of cables whose arrangement the people of Sancti Spiritus mock. “There are more expenses than benefits,” one of the drivers complained out loud this Wednesday, while commenting on the sign that the minibus, bright yellow, looks on the body: “100% electric.”
Technically, the bus continues to run in test mode, although it does so on a fairly well paved and straight road.
It is not known whether the military will make the move to serial production. Technically, the bus continues to run in test mode, although it does so on a fairly well paved and straight road. On the Central Highway – which divides Sancti Spíritus into two halves – there are also several key points for the population, such as the bus terminals, the hospital area and the agricultural fair space.
In April, when the local press praised the “frank consistency” of the army and its Military Industrial Company, it predicted that it would not be long before the yellow vehicles filled the streets of the province. It was, they claimed, a step to alleviate “the depressed state of public transportation.”
They asked the authorities, yes, for “financial support” to maximize the potential of the “invention”, whose technical name is VES002. “The project is in full process of technical evaluation in order to know its operation and the operating parameters that allow defects and problems to be corrected in advance,” he warned. Escambray.
It was planned that, if all went well, the military would start production, taking advantage of the importation of “five electrical stands”, starting points for assembly. Once the “small fleet” was built, the Armed Forces planned to delegate the operation of the vehicles to a MSME ally. To this day, the business continues to fail.
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