TransLink Launches Battery-Electric Bus Pilot as part of CUTRIC’s Pan-Canadian Integration Trial

Sept 12, 2019

As part of the continued progress of the Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial, CUTRIC is proud to announce the operation of the first of four buses and two high-powered, standardized overhead charging systems going into service today in Metro Vancouver, with six more on the way.

TransLink has led the Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial (Phase I) since 2017, when it joined a nationally coordinated effort to advance standardized and interoperable zero emissions transit technologies, spearheaded by the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC).

Today marks a milestone in TransLink’s continued work towards a fleet operating on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050.  Each of these buses is expected to reduce 100 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and save $40,000 in fuel costs annually in comparison with a conventional diesel bus.

The TransLink launch integrates two Canadian transit vehicle manufacturers (New Flyer Industries Canada of Winnipeg, Manitoba and Nova Bus, of St. Eustache, Quebec) and two charging station manufacturers (ABB Group and Siemens Canada, located in Montreal and Oakville respectively) to deploy battery-electric buses and electric charging stations that utilize an open protocol known as the OppCharge protocol—first developed by Siemens and Volvo Bus Corporation.

CUTRIC will collect data from all of the electric buses and electric chargers in operation as part of this project to build a Canadian E-Bus Big Data Trust for Canadian municipalities in 2020.

CUTRIC is a member-based innovation consortium that partners stakeholders in industry, transit and academia to develop the next-generation of low-carbon smart mobility technologies. Its vision is to make Canada a global leader in low-carbon smart mobility technology innovation. Its mandate is to catalyze innovation in transportation, create jobs in doing so, and radically reduce emissions from transportation.

Partner companies that are invested in this project include:

• New Flyer is providing Xcelsior CHARGE battery-electric buses. For the purposes of the CUTRIC trial, the company is implementing an on-route rapid charging system in co-operation with ABB and Siemens who are the providers of the charging equipment. This overhead charging strategy allows the bus to essentially stay in service indefinitely and is limited only by the transit service demands.
• Nova Bus, part of the Volvo Group, is providing LFSe electric buses.
• ABB and Siemens will supply interoperable opportunity charging systems with inverted pantograph technology for the battery-electric buses.

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