Given track record, buying a BYD bus needs due diligence

As high-profile procurement spats go, the one between the city of Albuquerque and California-based BYD Motors Inc. over a fleet of allegedly faulty 60-foot electric buses the city had planned to buy for the ill-fated Albuquerque Rapid Transit project was a doozy.

So Albuquerque residents who followed that fight, waged both at the microphone and in court between Mayor Tim Keller’s administration and BYD — aka Build Your Dreams — were likely taken aback last week with news BYD is one of three companies included in a price agreement made through the New Mexico General Services Department, meaning local governments around the state can choose BYD as a bus supplier without having to put the matter out to bid.

The battle between Albuquerque and BYD ended in December 2018 with lawyers agreeing the city would drop its lawsuit and 15 buses, delivered with considerable fanfare at $1.2 million each, would hit the road back to California. The city didn’t pay for the buses. Neither side collected damages (the city spent $138,000 in outside legal fees) and both sides agreed not to say bad things about the other.

But prior to that, the city had a litany of complaints that would make anyone with a lick of sense think twice about getting on a BYD bus, let alone buying one. Among the safety issues claimed by the city were cracked frames, wheelchair ramps that deployed when weight was on them, doors that opened while the bus was in motion, poor brake air pressure and exposed high-voltage wires. The city also said the batteries in the buses didn’t hold sufficient juice, as promised, to make their intended runs, even after overnight charging. While an oversimplification, if you take all that together you get something along the lines of it won’t run right, won’t stop and you might fall out.

It wasn’t just lawyers doing the talking. Keller called the buses “problematic and unsafe.” And, he said, “we need to hold them accountable for what they’ve done to our city.”

BYD is a big company with what a spokesman says is 40% of the nation’s electric bus-building capacity. It vigorously disputed the city’s allegations and said it was ready to stand behind its work. It had plans to file a counterclaim against the city.

So while it probably made sense for everyone involved in that purchasing fiasco to pack up and go home, putting on the best face possible, what about BYD ending up on a state preferred provider list for buses?

State GSD spokesman Thom Cole said the department issued an invitation to bid at the request of the New Mexico Department of Transportation. Six companies applied, and three were included in the agreement. GSD does not have the discretion to reject companies that meet the requirements and offer the lowest price.

“If your product meets the specifications, and your price is the lowest, you get a price agreement,” he said. As for BYD? “We think the sky’s the limit coming from New Mexico and you know, we hope that ... it results in lots of orders,” says BYD spokesman Frank Girardot.

A lot can change in two years. And if you believed BYD at the time, the city’s complaints were overwrought. Regardless of that, any New Mexico government that considers shelling out money for a BYD bus has an extra reason to exercise due diligence given the Albuquerque mess. Even if BYD is on a state-approved, no-bid list.