Sucking it down

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 09/20/2016 at 15:44 • Filed to: Plug in hybrid, Volvo, Stockholm

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Here’s a bus with something sticking into it. Yes, it’s a plug in bus. It trundles along on route 73 in Stockholm and at one terminus this device extends itself downwards like some kind of alien parasite and in six minutes supplies enough electrons to enable another round trip without resorting to the engine (it’s a hybrid).

Yes, I took a trip specially out of curiosity. It’s pleasingly smooth and quiet but for all that it’s still a bus crashing over uneven surfaces and you still have to share it with persons of sometimes doubtful hygiene.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Cé hé sin 09/20/2016 at 16:06

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That’s interesting! I’d imagine such a system will be replaced by inductive charging loops placed beneath the bus stop in the future.

Cé hé sin > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/20/2016 at 16:12

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That’s less efficient but yes one would think so.

The route is only about nine or ten minutes each way so it’s been specially chosen to tie in with the electric range of the bus. Why they don’t use a bus that you charge overnight and which will run for a full day I don’t know. They already exist.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Cé hé sin 09/20/2016 at 16:16

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Maybe those busses are more expensive? Though I can hardly imagine such a robotic arm/alien parasite being a cheap solution.

Cé hé sin > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/20/2016 at 16:46

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Hybrid buses are fearfully expensive and I suspect that they are used more to look green than because they are cheaper to one.

In Stockholm they advertise what kind of bus it is on the side and so they say biogasbuss, biodieselbuss or biodieselhybrid as appropriate. The gas ones smell and take ages to start.

They’re all trying to be green.

kanadanmajava1 > Cé hé sin 09/20/2016 at 16:48

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One of my former colleagues left the company to establish a new company to build electric buses. They have now managed to sell some buses and the first ones have been operating in Finland for a while. For couple of weird reasons they went for the alternative mounting for the charging pantographs. So every bus carries their own.

The main reason was that the wireless communication protocols for the charging stations weren’t finished so they couldn’t reliably initiate the charging from the vehicle. Volvo seems to have solved the issue somehow and I’m pretty sure that their choice is a lot better.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Cé hé sin 09/20/2016 at 17:08

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Of course they are trying to be green, some say green is the new cool.

Though I must say it shows how dedicated they are by putting it on the side of the buss.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/20/2016 at 19:51

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requires specific alignment,

also the distance between plates is important. so if there is packed snow the efficiency can drop quickly

along with being less efficient they are also usually slower to charge then a hardline

Cé hé sin > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 09/21/2016 at 13:11

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I found one more: alcohol bus! Or even buss.