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

  • Eco fuel economy
    April 19, 2012
    A study conducted by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland suggests that there is practically no difference between commercial petrol grades 95E10 and 98E5 sold in Finland with regard to fuel consumption during normal driving. The finding is based on driving tests conducted by VTT using six used cars of different make under laboratory conditions. It has been claimed in public that fuel consumption is higher with 95E10 petrol than with its predecessor 95E or the 98E5 petrol currently on the market. The su
    Read More
  • CCTV brings transit safety into view
    September 15, 2014
    David Crawford looks at camera-based vulnerable road users protection systems.Safe and efficient operation of road-based transit depends on minimising the risks of incidents involving other vehicles or vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and passengers boarding or alighting from buses or trams. The extent and quality of the visibility available to drivers is crucial in preventing and avoiding incidents. Conventionally, they have had to rely on fairly basic equipment - essentially the human
    Read More
  • Singapore to implement unified bus management system
    April 10, 2014
    Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded a consortium of ST Electronics and Trapeze Switzerland a contract to supply, install and commission an Intelligent Bus Management System with a total value of about US$54 million. Currently, both local transport operators, SBS Transit and SMRT, use separate bus fleet management systems to manage their daily bus operations and provide bus arrival information to commuters. This new system will provide a unified solution for operations control, fleet
    Read More
  • Electric cars – do zero emissions add up?
    August 9, 2013
    Buying an electric car may seem to be the green option when the energy label states Zero CO2 emissions. But that’s not the whole story when you factor in the electricity required to charge the batteries, and associated CO2 emissions created in electricity generation; the green benefits then become less clear. According to Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), the latest Renault Clio 4, dCi 90 ECO, emits 83 grams of CO2 per kilometre travelled. In comparison the Electric Nissan Leaf, requires 173 Watts of elec
    Read More

Highlighted Content