The town of Elk Grove near Sacramento has found that their spiffy hybrid transit buses don't work quite so well (registration required, or PDF
) on the longer regional routes they are using them on. The buses, like regular hybrid automobiles, work much more efficiently in stop and go traffic -- although in a much more pronounced an uncomfortable way for the passengers.
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csa | 10:04 AM |
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Sounds like the gas engine was too small for the intended usage. The gas engine has to be big enough to run the vehicle under the highest power output you expect without relying on the battery (or in this case, a capacitor?!?) unless you expect the battery capacity to be always sufficiently charged to supply enough energy during the periods of the highest power output, and from the article, it seems the designers gave the gas engine only enough power to run at highway speeds under not adverse conditions.
Metro Transit here in the twin cities is purchasing nearly half of their new vehicles as hybrids in the near future. It sounds like they use the GM Allison models whereas this story is about the ISE system model. It sounds like ISE uses a series system and GM Allison is a parallel system. The parallel system is 100% electric drive with a diesel generator, instead of a smaller engine with electric assist. I'm guessing that makes a huge difference on commuter routes and why the twin cities chose that type of bus.
We're also possibly going from biodiesel B10 to B2 0 in the future, I guess.
