Electronics giant ABB has won a contract to provide electric bus charging infrastructure for a fleet of Volvo 7900 12-meter electric buses that will serve Harrogate, a historic spa town in northern England. ABB will supply three HVC 300P charging stations and an electric substation.

ABB says this project will be the first in the UK to use the OppCharge interface, which enables fast opportunity charging while buses wait at bus stops at the end of the line. Charging will take three to six minutes. Opportunity charging allows the e-buses to use smaller batteries, reducing their overall weight and improving energy efficiency.

ABB’s chargers feature a modular design offering charging power of 150, 300, 450 or 600 kW. The buses’ on-board pantographs connect automatically to an overhead charging mast. The OppCharge interface is also compatible with other brands and models of electric buses.

Daan Nap, Global Sales Director of Electric Bus Charging at ABB, said, “This contract introduces the OppCharge interface in the UK, a development that will help to further accelerate the uptake of electric buses by allowing the same charging equipment to be used by different brands of buses.”

Martin Hale, Marketing and Sales Manager for ABB’s EV Charging Infrastructure, said, “OppCharge saves weight on electric buses and improves energy efficiency by keeping the batteries topped up and allowing the vehicle manufacturer to reduce the battery size.”

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Source: ABB