The world’s fastest-charging electric bus, which takes as little as 10 seconds to completely recharge, is now in service in the coastal city of Ningbo, China. The bus, manufactured in Ningbo by China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR), has made its debut on a 24-stop, 7-mile route around the city. Though each charge only allows the bus to run for about three miles, the lightning-fast charging time means the bus can recharge at many of its stops along the route.
To recharge, a device on the roof connects to the electrical installation at a bus stop, which tops up the bus’s batteries during the time it takes passengers to get on and off. The bus also incorporates several other efficiencies into its systems, including converting more than 80 percent of braking and downhill energy into storable electricity, reducing its electricity consumption by 30 to 50 percent. The super capacitors used in the charging system are made of high-performance carbon and are said to have capacity to recharge and discharge more than a million times.
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Super capacitors are not new to buses in China, and have been in use in Shanghai since 2005. The Shanghai buses can now complete their full routes, a distance of around 7 miles, on a single charge, but they take about 30 seconds to charge, three times the length it takes the new Ningbo bus. If the pilot program is a success, the city of Ningbo plans to put 1,200 more of the super-capacitor buses into service over the next three years.
Via Gas2
Images via News.cn
