Friday 22 July 2016
An electric bus which charges up in 15 seconds has hit the streets of Geneva in Switzerland.
In the 15 seconds that people spend getting on and off the bus, the system transfers 2.5kWh.
That’s enough to keep the bus on its appointed rounds for another three or four stops.
Only when it reaches the end of the circuit, the bus takes four or five minutes to top off its lithium-ion batteries, which can hold 73kWh.
The demonstration phase has ended and ABB says it now has a commercial contract to develop a full fleet of buses for Geneva’s main routes.
Jean-Luc Favre, Head of ABB’s global rail business said: “Obtaining adequate power for this purpose from the grid can be a challenge. We address this at the flash stations by trickle charging [the station’s] batteries, which are an integral part of the station. Then, when the bus arrives, power is drawn from the flash batteries to the bus batteries, avoiding peaks on the grid.”