Skip to main content

5,000-hour durability milestone for transit bus fuel cell system

UTC Power, a United Technologies Corporation company, has announced one of its latest generation PureMotion Model 120 fuel cell powerplants for hybrid-electric transit buses has surpassed 5,000 operating hours in real-world service with its original cell stacks and no cell replacements.
February 1, 2012 Read time: 1 min

271 UTC Power, a 2064 United Technologies Corporation company, has announced one of its latest generation PureMotion Model 120 fuel cell powerplants for hybrid-electric transit buses has surpassed 5,000 operating hours in real-world service with its original cell stacks and no cell replacements. This powerplant is aboard an Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) bus operating in the Greater Oakland, California area.

274 AC Transit interim general manager Mary King commented, "This is an important milestone for our programme that shows the steady progress of fuel cell technology and its potential value to urban transit fleets."

Three of AC Transit's buses are equipped with UTC Power fuel cell systems and have now travelled over 340,000kms, with an average fuel economy that is 65 per cent better than the control fleet of diesel buses running the same routes and duty cycles.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Study reveals unexpected effects of replacing fuel tax
    December 16, 2016
    Eric O’Rear, Wallace Tyner and Kemal Sarica examine the far-reaching implications of replacing fuel taxes with a mileage tax. Lawmakers at both the federal and state level are frustrated over declining fuel tax revenues as they struggle to fund projects for constructing and maintaining state-wide infrastructure.
  • Opticom gives priority to Memphis Transit’s buses
    October 29, 2014
    A new traffic signal priority system is helping bus passengers in Memphis reach their destinations on time.
  • Carbon finance delivers critical support to mass transit schemes
    February 2, 2012
    David Crawford investigates carbon finance in transport. World Bank carbon finance grants are delivering critical support to major mass transit deployments in emerging and developing economies. Only recently operative in the transport sector, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM, see panel) is designed to generate additional income streams and improve internal rates of return on projects funded from public- and private-sector sources.
  • Canada invests $4.2m in green bus research
    February 24, 2020
    The Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (Cutric) has entered into a partnership to establish research institutions dedicated to battery electric and fuel cell electric buses.