Bus Electrifi cation: Choosing the Right Charging Method W ITH THE FOCUS OF many agencies switching to electric buses, it is important for them to consider which charging method would be most successful in their region. While some may view charging as a sort of inconvenience, Michael Austin of BYD Motors explained that agencies may be thinking of it in the wrong way. “Th ink about it this way, if I told you you’re going to charge your phone and you have to make it last all week. Th at’s ridiculous. I charge every time I go to work; I plug it into my car, You opportunity charge that to make it last a full week. You meet technology half way.” Both methods have benefi ts and setbacks. In-route charging can be expensive or hard to place in larger cities, but allows for longer service without the bus returning to the facility. While overnight charging can be implausible for systems with longer routes, it has the benefi t of cutting costs. In-route charging Microvast, which currently has several cities in China that operate buses with its batteries installed, predominantly aims to use fast charging. Hanko Song VP of marketing at Microvast explained that they have charging areas at the end of a route, typically in parking lots, because it is hard to build charging stations in the large cities of China. Th e batteries take around 20 minutes to charge and Song said that during that time, drivers are able to take a break. “We are using charging guns to plug in. We use two charging guns, because one gun can only 16 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | FEBRUARY 2017 be limited by 250 amps and we’re charging about 500 amps.” One agency in North America that has been looking at turning electric is the Société de transport de Montréal (STM). François Chamberland, STM’s executive director of engineering, infrastructure and major projects, said that STM fi rst began looking at electric buses in 2007. What they found was that there weren’t many fully electric buses available for them at that By Maile Bucher As technology continues to develop and agencies begin looking into adding electric buses to their routes, deciding between overnight and in-route charging diff er from the needs of each agency. STM IS getting three fully electric buses, with its route, in-route charging was the ideal solution. STM’s hope is that quick charging allows for the agency to accommodate its high ridership without the need of adding more vehicles. STM STM
MassTransit_February_2017
To see the actual publication please follow the link above