THE INTERNATIONAL REPORT
Electric buses at UITP Geneva By Doug Jack
E
very two years, the International Union of Public Transport (UITP) holds a World Congress and Exhibition. This year’s May exhibition in the beautiful Swiss city of Geneva welcomed more than 2,000 delegates from around 80 countries to the Palexpo exhibition center. The center features two adjacent halls, with one designated for the transit bus industry and its suppliers. The other focused on the rail industry. It has become a tradition at UITP that manufacturers showcase not just their latest products, but often new concepts. This year, the spotlight was on a number of all-electric vehicles, which included trolleybuses despite the clutter of overhead wiring at busy junctions, and battery-powered vehicles. The main problem with battery-powered vehicles is their insufficient range for a full day’s operation. Too many batteries can limit the number of passengers. The batteries also have to power all the systems, including heavy-duty HVAC. The solution is to recharge the batteries at regular intervals during the day, perhaps at each end of a route. There are two main systems, conductive recharging and inductive charging. Conductive recharging involves a contact on the underside of the bus that connects with a plate on the road surface or wiring buried just beneath the surface. Inductive charging takes place when a pantograph or collector on the roof of the bus connects with an overhead charging station. Both systems were on display in Geneva. Bombardier has a trial project in Mannheim, Germany, using two midibuses built by Rampini in Italy. They follow a fixed route where the batteries can recharge regularly through contact with wires under the surface of the street. Bombardier says that they could also serve other vehicles, such as taxis, municipal trucks and local delivery vans. Users could be charged regularly for the electricity consumed. Conductix Wanpfler uses plates laid in the surface of a street, usually at each end of a route. One system has been operating successfully in Genoa, Italy, for several years. Hess, the only remaining bus builder in Switzerland, worked with a consortium of Swiss partners to build what is believed to be
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BUSRIDE | AU G US T. 2013
A Swiss consortium built the world’s first rechargeable articulated electric bus.
the world’s first rechargeable articulated bus. This was running a shuttle service between the exhibition halls and the airport. After each round trip, the driver parked the vehicle under an overhead gantry. The lasercontrolled collector on the roof of the trailer connected with the gantry and took a three to four minute recharge. ABB, one of the partners in the consortium, believes it will soon be possible to provide ultra-fast charges at each stop, giving a 15-second boost while passengers get on and off without interrupting the schedule. VDL Bus & Coach of the Netherlands displayed an all-electric version of its Citea low floor bus. This very neatly packaged 40-foot model stores the batteries and electrical equipment in a tower in the offside rear corner of the vehicle, taking up the space of two double seats. This vehicle has electrical wheel-hub drive motors from German company Ziehl-Abegg in which neither a transmission nor a differential is needed. The company is investing just over $30 million in building and equipping a new factory for this advanced automotive drive technology. The enterprising Polish manufacturer Solaris showed a 40-foot all-electric bus and announced an order for two from Raginbahn of Düsseldorf, Germany. Solaris says that it will be able to offer options to extend the range with fast charging. It is a long way from China to Geneva, but two Chinese manufacturers showed all-electric vehicles. BYD has started to take some small orders in Europe from customers who want to gain experience of the new technology. They have changed their body structures from steel to aluminum to save weight. Youngman, a licensee of Neoplan with busride.com