Supercapacitors boost electric bus charging

Israeli defence company Elbit Systems, which will exhibit at the forthcoming Fuel choices Summit in Tel Aviv, is developing an electric bus charging system that would allow vehicles to boost their batteries at terminal stations. There, the buses would connect to supercapacitors that charge the buses quickly so that they can operate for precisely calculated distances, according to the Jerusalem Post. Elbit’s supercapacitors aim to power buses for one full route, allowing them to recharge in the span of le
November 27, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Israeli defence company Elbit Systems, which will exhibit at the forthcoming Fuel choices Summit in Tel Aviv, is developing an electric bus charging system that would allow vehicles to boost their batteries at terminal stations. There, the buses would connect to supercapacitors that charge the buses quickly so that they can operate for precisely calculated distances, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Elbit’s supercapacitors aim to power buses for one full route, allowing them to recharge in the span of less than a minute at the vehicle’s terminal stop. As passengers descend from and board the bus, the vehicle will quickly become fully charged for another route.

Each charging station would be able to handle about 60 buses per hour and during normal business hours the charging stations could be powered by green electricity sources like solar energy, Elbit said. For lines routes longer than 10 kilometres, it will be possible to install charging stations at additional pickup stations.

Related Content

  • Hydrogen filling station operating in California
    April 11, 2012
    Linde North America, a specialist in the design, construction and operation of hydrogen vehicle fuelling systems, has commissioned an installation at AC Transit, the bus operator for 13 cities in the East Bay Area, including Emeryville, Oakland and Berkeley, and also operates trans-bay service to San Francisco. The Emeryville hydrogen fuelling station, which is now fuelling 12 fuel cell buses and up to 20 passenger cars a day, is one of two Linde is supplying to AC Transit. The second, located at the Oaklan
    Read More
  • Machine vision’s transport offerings move on apace
    June 30, 2016
    Colin Sowman considers some of the latest advances in camera technology and transport-related vision technology applications. Vision technology in the transportation sector is moving apace as technical developments on both the hardware and software sides combine to make cameras more multifunctional with a single digital camera now able to cover a multitude of tasks.
    Read More
  • Counting the environmental costs of ITS deployment
    October 29, 2015
    David Crawford looks at the latest thinking about calculating the benefits associated with the environmental side of ITS schemes. The penny is dropping that some environmental costs “are being shifted outside the traditional bounds of evaluation methods” for ITS-based road transport projects, according to researchers at the UK University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.
    Read More
  • Jet engine range extenders for electric vehicles
    June 19, 2015
    In its latest report, Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles Land, Water & Air 2015-2025, IDTechEx claims that over eight million hybrid cars will be made in 2025, each with a range extender, the additional power source that distinguishes them from pure electric cars. Add to that significant money spent on the same devices in buses, military vehicles, boats and so on and a major new market emerges. Whereas today's range extenders usually consist of little more than off the shelf internal combustion engine
    Read More

Highlighted Content