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New electric bus charges in just 10 seconds - Virgin.com
According to local transportation authorities in the eastern Chinese port city of Ningbo, the public bus – which was also manufactured in the city – runs along a 24-stop 11km route, and takes as little as 10 seconds to charge up ready for the next leg of its journey.
The bus recharges while stationary as passengers get on or off, and once fully charged the bus can run for up to five kilometres, according to Zhou Qinghe, president of Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive.
This might not seem like a huge distance, but the fact that the bus charges so quickly combined with the fixed route that the bus takes means that it can charge up whenever its stationary for just a brief period at designated locations – most obviously at bus stops.
This isn’t a one-trick bus, however. Not only does it charge quickly, but it’s also capable of more efficient usage of its energy while travelling. For example, while braking or negotiating slopes, the bus recycles more than 80 per cent of potential energy for storage and subsequent usage. This means a reduction in electricity consumption of around 30 to 50 per cent compared to its conventional equivalents.
Using only a tenth of the energy of a standard diesel bus, this performance translate into fuel savings of as much as $200,000 over the full lifetime of the vehicle.
Ningbo now plans to add 1,200 more buses of this kind to its public transportation fleet over the next three years.
According to local transportation authorities in the eastern Chinese port city of Ningbo, the public bus – which was also manufactured in the city – runs along a 24-stop 11km route, and takes as little as 10 seconds to charge up ready for the next leg of its journey.
The bus recharges while stationary as passengers get on or off, and once fully charged the bus can run for up to five kilometres, according to Zhou Qinghe, president of Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive.
This might not seem like a huge distance, but the fact that the bus charges so quickly combined with the fixed route that the bus takes means that it can charge up whenever its stationary for just a brief period at designated locations – most obviously at bus stops.
This isn’t a one-trick bus, however. Not only does it charge quickly, but it’s also capable of more efficient usage of its energy while travelling. For example, while braking or negotiating slopes, the bus recycles more than 80 per cent of potential energy for storage and subsequent usage. This means a reduction in electricity consumption of around 30 to 50 per cent compared to its conventional equivalents.
Using only a tenth of the energy of a standard diesel bus, this performance translate into fuel savings of as much as $200,000 over the full lifetime of the vehicle.
Ningbo now plans to add 1,200 more buses of this kind to its public transportation fleet over the next three years.
