A team of scientists from Switzerland are looking at a cost-efficient way to integrate the TOSA electric bus system, the first electric articulated bus that runs without overhead lines. According to its creators, the bus recharges at the stops along the route in record time of 15 seconds, about the same time it takes for passengers to disembark and embark.
Cutting-edge technology is used worldwide to improve not only personal transportation (more and more companies are choosing the electric over fossil fuel), but also the public one. As a matter a fact, Europe is constantly investing millions of euros in newer ways for city’s to emerge this type of transport. One of the countries working assidously on electric public transportation is Switzerland.
Many cities have already expressed interest in TOSA technology, but Geneva will be the first city to adopt a regular line of the type, somewhere around 2017. The bus will take 15 seconds to recharge, enough to store up the energy needed to get to a recharging station at an upcoming stop or at the terminus. Energy is drawn from the grid and stored at the stations.
According to its creators, the innovation of the rechargeable TOSA buses is that they provide large-capacity (133 passenger), 100% electric vehicles without the use of overhead lines and they come paccked with batteries small enough (twice the energy of an electric car battey) to ride on the roof.
TOSA was developed by ABB Secheron and its partners (TPG, SIG and OPI). They recently concluded a successful pilot operation of the bus. Meanwhile, the scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have created a mathematical model that makes the costs of implementation and operation be efficient.
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