| coachman |
20th July 2015 16:10 |
Hybrid
The only hybrid buses I had experience of were Optare Solo's that had been converted to diesel electric drive by a company called Enerco. This would have been about about 6 or 7 years ago now. The traction batteries that were used on these had a very short service life span of perhaps a year of maybe 18 months.
I don't know how far battery technology has advanced since then but from reading this report it appears not very far.
These buses also needed three different sets of batteries one for each of the electrical systems used on the vehicle. They needed a 24 volt supply for the original bus electrics, a 12 volt supply for the VW diesel that drove the generator and last but not least the main traction batteries. I can't remember what voltage the traction motor used but it was high enough to be unhealthy if you ever got a shock from it.
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