Electric bus wins: BYD in Nottingham, Irizar in Bilbao
23 December 2016
Thirteen new electric buses have been added to Nottingham’s existing fleet of 45 electric vehicles, turning another two park and ride services into fully zero emission services. The Chinese-built BYD eBuses will run on the CentreLink and EcoLink routes which have been designed to cut the amount of traffic entering the city centre.
The current fleet of 45 Yorkshire-built Optare electric buses have saved more than £300,000 (US$370K) in fuel savings and an estimated 1,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases since their introduction in 2012. The investment in these zero emission buses is a part of Nottingham’s bid to reduce both greenhouse gases and improve air quality. With an expected Clean Air Zone to be in place by 2020, they are an essential part of the local authority’s anti-pollution strategy.
The £15-million (US$18.5-million) project has been partly funded through the last round of the Green Bus Fund, the City Council’s Workplace Parking Levy and a number of other sources, including OLEV funding. This has enabled an expansion of the fast charging infrastructure for buses across the city and at Queens Drive Park and Ride.
Irizar in Bilbao. The city of Bilbao, Spain is adding two new electric Irizar i2e buses. These buses are joining the Bilbobus fleet and will operate on several lines. The electric buses achieve a range of more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) and include sodium-nickel batteries that provide power to the electric motor, resulting in a nominal torque of 1500N·m and 180 kW of power. The vehicle regenerates braking energy as electricity, increasing battery life.
Irizar has also supplied the charging stations and the smart charging system for the buses, developed by JEMA (an Irizar Group company), which automatically manages and optimizes electricity consumption.
The i2e bus has a very low carbon footprint of 8.45 g CO2 eq./passenger-kilometer. Compared to a conventional combustion bus, around 800 tons of CO2 are prevented from being emitted during its entire service life.
Six Irizar i2e buses make up France’s first 100% electric line in Marseille. The user satisfaction level is currently 99%. In addition, cities such as Bayonne, Paris, Nice, Madrid, Malaga, Le Havre, Grenoble and others which will soon be added have carried out successful tests with these vehicles.
The trend to electrify city buses has been rather slow but should pick up speed in the next 5+ years. By 2020+ most new city buses orders should be for electric units. The switch from diesel to electric units will take 15 to 20 years.
For health reasons, Chinese cities should lead the way with locally made e-units.
Volvo Canada has started to mass produce city e-buses with a very large order for 10 local cities. The Provincial government supports the on-going programme @ 90+ %.
Posted by: HarveyD | 28 December 2016 at 08:43 AM