Electric Bus Test Takes Place in Germany

Jérémie Desjardins, Business Leader PRIMOVE, Bombardier Transportation, said: “PRIMOVE technology enables electric buses to serve routes originally designed for conventional buses operating to tight timetables. It fully integrates the charging process into normal bus operations so you don’t need more vehicles than with current diesel bus fleets. We combine smaller, lighter batteries with the principle of fast opportunity charging to produce enough energy for a whole day’s travel and increase the batteries’ lifespan considerably.”

The project partners will initially test the PRIMOVE technology during a testing and approval phase to collect information for the subsequent scheduled passenger operations, as well as for RNV’s internal operations and its training of personnel. Innovative features of the project include the planned optimisation of the charging process by evaluating real-time data on the vehicle’s position on the route and its battery’s level of charging.

Public relations and civic participation initiatives will involve passengers and residents of the
city of Mannheim in the PRIMOVE trial. Christian Specht outlined the city’s task: “We want to find out how people perceive and rate the advantages of electric buses and the new wireless charging system. By doing so, we are paving the way to introduce CO2-free and low-noise e-mobility to other routes in Mannheim and the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region.”

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology’s department for vehicle systems technology will provide the project with scientific support under the direction of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Gratzfeld. The research will focus on an energy simulation that demonstrates the entire power flow in the electric buses and at the inductive charging stations. This will allow the battery size and the charging infrastructure to be perfectly adapted to each other and determine the demands on the power supply network. The institute’s work will also confirm the greater energy efficiency of the system compared to conventional propulsion methods. An extensive measurement programme will verify the results of the simulations when the electric vehicles enter passenger service.