Transit buses batteries

Recently, the major activity in transportation fuel cell development has focused on the polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). In 1993, Ballard Power Systems (Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) demonstrated a 10 m (32 foot) light-duty transit bus with a 120 kW fuel cell system, followed by a 200 kW, 12 meter (40 foot) heavy-duty transit bus in 1995 (26). These buses use no traction batteries. They operate on compressed hydrogen as the on-board fuel. In 1997, Ballard provided 205 kW (275 HP) PEFC units for a small fleet of hydrogen-fueled, full-size transit buses for demonstrations in Chicago, Illinois, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Working... 

AFV penetration has been most successful in markets that are small, well-defined, and with limited competition, such as in the transit bus, garbage truck, school bus, and taxi markets. Yet these are the same markets least likely to catalyze broader market penetration. Some have suggested alternative fuels, especially battery electric vehicles, may be able to carve out new market niches as "disruptive technologies" that serve unmet consumer needs (Christensen, 1997). Yet the size, scale, and diversity of the existing transportation market works against this by providing a huge portfolio of options for almost every consumer transportation need. 

Transit Bus Applications of Lithium-Ion Batteries Progress and Prospects... 

Over the past two decades, compliance with stricter environmental requirements led to the rapid penetration of hybrid electric buses (HEBs)/EBs in urban transit bus fleets to improve fuel efficiency by 20-50% and, correspondingly, reduce exhaust emissions. Advanced technologies (lightweight materials for body, chassis, and seat assemblies stop-start systems for idle reduction improved batteries electric motors converters and power electronics) are also being deployed to further improve the fuel efficiency of advanced buses and urban air quality. 

Transit bus competitive grant programs funded by ETA in recent years (such as the Bus and Bus Facilities, Clean Fuels, and Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER)) [4] enabled the demonstration and rapid adoption of hybrid and electric drive HEBs/EBs/fuel cell buses (FCBs) with advanced batteries in urban fleets under expansion and renewal. 

Seven additional buses will be added to the US transit bus demonstration fleet by FTA s NFCBP. All these new FCBs will use the hydrogen FCs in combination with advanced LIBs for RESS energy storage and regenerative braking, some in a battery-dominant configuration with the FC as an APU. 

Information on LIB battery failures and maintenance issues can also be found in NREL evaluations of hybrid and electric transit bus fleets operating in many US cities [58,59]. These reports evaluate HEB and EB fleets such as the New York City Transit BAE Orion diesel hybrid bus fleet, Long Beach Transit gasoline-electric hybrids. King County Metro Allison HEB, and Knoxville Area Transit Ebus EB and trolleys. For instance, the NREL multigenerational comparison of Orion/BAE HEBs operating in the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority transit fleet [60] identified the key LIB performance, durability, and safety improvements needed for transit reliability, availability and durability [61]. 

It is clear that the US and global hybrid and electric transit bus industry is ready to utilize improved LIBs, if and when the emerging batteries become proven in performance, durability and cost and commercially viable. Thanks to the recent progress and Federal investments in fuel-efficient transit buses, there are diverse choices of LIBs and RESS... 

See Analysis of Electric Drive Technologies for Transit Applications Battery-Electric, Hybrid-Electric and Euel Gells, 2005 NAVC report for ETA at http //www.fta.dot.gov/documents/Electric Drive Bus Analysis.pdf. 

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