City buses are an ideal application for EVs. The savings on fuel and maintenance are undeniable. In China, cities are ordering them by the thousand. So why are US cities still piddling around with pilots of a few buses? “The time for pilot programs should be in the rear-view mirror,” writes Gina Coplon-Newfield, Director of… Read more »
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… Read more »
Public transport operator the TEC Group, which serves the Belgian cities of Charleroi and Namur, has ordered 90 Volvo 7900 Electric Hybrid buses as well as 12 ABB charging stations. Delivery and installation will get underway this fall. TEC brought 11 Volvo 7900s into service in Namur in January. Once the new buses take to… Read more »
The Harrogate Bus Company of the UK has placed an order for eight Volvo 7900 electric buses. The vehicles will operate in Harrogate, 90 km northeast of Manchester. When the vehicles enter service in 2018, the project will be the first in the UK to use opportunity charging via the common interface OppCharge. The charging stations can also be… Read more »
Luxembourg public transport operator Sales-Lentz has ordered three Heliox Fast Charge Systems with the OppCharge open interface to provide fast charging services at end-of-route stations for its four Volvo 7900 electric buses. The chargers will be delivered in the second quarter of 2017. Earlier this year, Volvo and Heliox, together with other vehicle and charger… Read more »
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is steadily electrifying its public transit. Transport operator Sales-Lentz bought its first Volvo hybrid buses in 2009, and now has 24 Volvo hybrids and 12 Volvo PHEVs in its fleet. The company is now taking the next step in electrification with the purchase of four Volvo 7900 Electric buses, which… Read more »
The city-state of Luxembourg became the latest metro area to plug in its public transit, as local bus operator AVL ordered 5 plug-in hybrid buses from Volvo. Electronics giant ABB will supply the charging equipment. Luxembourg City already has 14 Volvo 7900 Hybrid buses, which went into service in 2011. The new Volvo 7900 Electric… Read more »
As more European cities begin trials of battery-electric buses, a group of bus manufacturers and charging infrastructure providers has agreed to develop voluntary charging standards in advance of official regulations. The objective is to ensure reliability and compatibility across bus brands and charging systems. The European body CEN-CENELEC and the international standards organization ISO/IEC are… Read more »
Volvo has won an order for 11 plug-in hybrid buses from the city of Namur in Belgium, the largest order to date for the company’s electrified buses. The buses will run on electric power within the city’s new zero-emissions zone. Public transport authority TEC, which transports more than 250 million passengers per year, is also… Read more »
The city of Hamburg, Germany has a plan to electrify its public transport system: starting in 2020 it will acquire only emission-free buses. The city’s public transit company, the Hamburger Hochbahn, has opened a special bus route, Innovation Route 109, on which it will run comparative tests of modern drive technologies under everyday conditions. The… Read more »