DANCER focuses on the production of electric buses with the aim of contributing to the modernization of new cities.
“Our biggest challenge was to rethink and reinvent the urban bus, making it ultralight and attractive for both passengers and the environment,” says Alvydas Naujekas, the CEO of Vėjo projektai, the company that created the DANCER group.
Furthermore, the representative explains that “the main idea was to reduce user waiting time and thus increase efficiency.”
During the Sustainable Bus webinar, the spokesperson highlights the DANCER bus as an example.
One of the main features of this vehicle is that it boasts one of the fastest charges on the market, with a time of only eight minutes.
However, this unit offered by the Lithuanian company has other considerable advantages.
In this regard, Naujekas emphasizes the “physics” of the product.
“Lower weight means lower consumption. This is something crucial that should be applied to all vehicles, even individual ones,” Naujekas points out.
“The use of lighter materials than traditional steel results in a product that is not only much lighter but also consumes 40% less and offers greater acceleration,” he adds.
The body of the DANCER bus is made from recycled plastic reinforced with carbon fiber and fiberglass, giving it the characteristic of being durable.
“Today, public transport is facing the future in terms of CO2 emissions, noise, efficiency, and user comfort,” comments the CEO regarding the company’s ecological commitment.
In the same vein, Naujekas states, “The material reduction we propose makes the bus have a lifespan of more than 30 years.”
In this way, the company reduces pollution by avoiding premature obsolescence of its units.
Recently, the brand had the opportunity to present its innovative vehicles at a renowned European event.
This marks the debut of the DANCER bus at Busworld 2023 in Brussels, Belgium, from October 7 to 12.
Here, it reveals an empty weight of 8.6 tons for the 12-meter urban electric transport.
This represents up to 30% less weight than other public vehicle options manufactured by competitors.
DANCER is the inventor of the lightest alternative.
What are DANCER’s expectations for the coming years?
Although the Lithuanian company materialized its first electric vehicle in 2016, the idea was conceived much earlier.
“We started designing a 100% electric bus twelve years ago, in 2011,” describes Naujekas.
However, at that time, the company was a very small division, and “there weren’t many visionaries in this field.”
Over time, along with technological advances, the company began to focus on developing new transformations that allow for lower costs.
When asked about his vision for new innovations, the CEO states, “The future brings remote driving of public transport and autonomous buses.“
“This dynamic is considered safe at the national level since it eliminates accidents caused by the human factor, such as speed, intoxication, distraction, and fatigue. This future is quite close,” he assures.
It is worth mentioning that Lithuania has had a legal framework for autonomous vehicles since 2018, which establishes all the necessary conditions for this technology to operate on the country’s streets.
In the field of advancements, Naujekas details some features that DANCER bus presents in this direction.
“We apply the Internet of Things (IoT) and applications to create an intelligent online monitoring system that allows collecting data, analyzing it immediately, and implementing preventive measures for the vehicle,” he comments.
Regarding the benefits of this implementation, he adds, “It provides an extremely high reliability rate for the bus.”
The system processes more than 1,000 signals every two milliseconds, offering practical information for continuous performance improvements.
