MASS_17

MassTransit_February_2017

Microvast FEBRUARY 2017 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 17 time. Another issue was how STM operates. Th ey have their buses in route as long as possible — buses typically stay in service for 24 hours. At the end of the shift , the next driver is picked up along the route rather than returning to the facilities. Using overnight charging just wasn’t an option for STM. Chamberland said that they’re currently running a trial called City Mobility with their supplier Nova Bus. “We have a grant from the government of $11.9 million ($9.1 million USD) to make a demonstration project with fastcharging buses. We’ve chosen a route — it’s line number 36 here in Montreal — so it’s 10 kilometers long. (6.2 miles) We will get three fully electric buses that will arrive here for testing next week for the maintenance and the drivers,” explained Chamberland. “Our goal is to demonstrate that they can do the job. Most demonstration projects that I’ve seen are small scale and aft er one year people say that it was a huge success and made less then 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) in a year. Our buses run 90,000 (55,923 miles) a year. So we want to put these buses in full service and show that they can work — with the road, the heat and the traffi c that dayto day operations need.” In-route charging does require as much power as possible with the two charging guns, Song said, but there are also other options. Brendan Riley president of GreenPower Motor Company Inc. explained, “There are two different types of in-route charge. There is the contact type and there is the non-contact type. So we call it conductive or non-conductive. Basically you’ve got to plug it in or you don’t need to plug it in. There’s really all different results ... there’s really trade-offs. For instance let’s take an overhead in-route charging system that uses a cantanary or overhead charging pantograph. In places where it gets really cold that can be a problem. In places where there is a lot of wildlife that can be a problem, I’ve head of cooked birds on some electric deployments.” MICROVAST IS looking to expand further into Europe. Its batteries are currently used in Brussels. MICROVAST’S ELECTRIC batteries have a longer lifespan when using in-route charging - rather than overnight Microvast


MassTransit_February_2017
To see the actual publication please follow the link above