Buses driving electric propulsion systems

There are many new types of electric buses such as pure electric double deckers and articulated buses arriving swiftly onto global markets according to UK industry research company IDTechEx.

According to IDTechEx Research, work by Siemens in Germany on long distance pure electric trucks charged by short lengths of overhead catenary could also apply to buses.

That should involve much lower cost than the other zero pollution option the fuel cell bus it says.

“Electric buses are now more important than cars in several ways. They will still be around when some cities ban cars from urban centres,” says IDTechEx Research Chair Dr. Peter Harrop,

“Buses are a bigger market for lithium-ion batteries by value than cars, and they pioneer many new technologies first because the up-front price is less important,” he says.

According to IDTechEX Research, Switzerland is exploring the potential of autonomous electric buses, with a pair of driverless shuttles now ferrying passengers around the city of Sion as part of a two-year trial.

Others being tested out across the globe include the EZ10 in California and Singapore, Navia also in Singapore, and the Olli in Washington DC which can talk to passengers.

Switzerland’s autonomous buses will also take to public roads with local regulators assessing a wider deployment of low-carbon, autonomous mass transport.

Operated by Switzerland’s public bus operator, PostBus, they will navigate Sion’s city streets with software by BestMile, a spin out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.