JUN 16

The EcoRide BE-35 is a lightweight, composite body transit bus with battery-electric drive that offers a 600 percent fuel efficiency as compared to a typical diesel bus. A test fleet is currently in operation near Pomona, California, and other tests are being planned for San Antonio TX and Tallahassee FL later this year as the company seeks federal validation in order to begin large scale production.

Although buses are an efficient way of moving numbers of people, a typical diesel bus only gets less than 4 miles per gallon (but that makes it equivalent to 40 passenger miles per gallon if there are 10 riders on the bus). Hybrids increase the efficiency to about 4.5 miles per gallon, which can be significant for a transit authority's operations, but is still not a drastic improvement. The EcoRide, however, gets the equivalent of 24 miles per gallon by running solely on electricity.

Power storage for these buses is in lithium-titanite battery packs with a capacity of 54 to 72 kWh. The EcoRide buses have a 40 mile range, and can be recharged in just 10 minutes using a roof mounted system called FastFill that was also developed by the company. While the EcoRide doesn't have the range for a typical full day of operation (generally 80 to 100 miles), its ability to quickly recharge could make that less of an issue.

GM Ventures, the investment and development arm of General Motors, has just invested $6 million with Proterra for continued development of the EcoRide. Whether GM will seek a larger stake in the company, or seek to incorporate Proterra's technology into its own systems remains to be seen.

via: GM Press Release

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by Datd00d, June 16, 2011

Something tells me the range is going to have to be extended a bit more before full fledge production to occur.
Hooray for captain obvious

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Anon
written by Anon, June 17, 2011

put a cable trolley system in here and there to charge on the go and this could be a very good mass transit system.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by Bob, June 29, 2011

If the range is 40 miles, and a day's running is 80 to 100 miles, they're already about where they need to be. Every bus driver gets a lunch break, and if the batteries can be recharged in 10 minutes, that can easily happen on their lunch break. If the batteries can stand partial charging, they could get a nearly full charge on a 10 minute coffee break, which I would guess they probably get a couple of during a day.

Besides, electricity costs are close to fixed since they are subject to Public Utility Commission regulation. Diesel costs are all over the map, mostly at the top part. Every large organization needs to control its costs, or at least be able to project them into future operations. That's nearly impossible with diesel, but very possible with electricity.

Finally, at least for the Pomona, CA area, they'll get the South Coast Air Quality Management district off their backs. The AQMD hates diesel particulate emissions, and this thing has none at all.

If the batteries and mechanics hold up, this thing will work.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by Miguel, July 01, 2011

Why they don't use the F1 KERST system? Buses break a lot. Also Why don't they put a solar panel on top of the bus? That will increase the charge while riding too.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment