Waterloo sunrise for BYD e-bus
Recharging
Two charging stations, each with two chargers, have been installed at Waterloo
Two new recharging stations have been erected at Waterloo on the right hand side of the yard. They were much smaller than I had anticipated. Each of them has two cables with seven-pin connector ‘guns’ on the end which link the bus with the electrical supply. Each bus has two sockets at the offside rear that the guns can be plugged into. From the charger, the power passes through a motor controller and distribution box to the batteries.
Both guns would normally be connected at the same time in which instance it would take five hours to fully recharge a bus with depleted batteries. If for some reason only one gun was connected up, the recharging time would double to nearer ten hours. With both cables, each station can supply between 60-80kW/h. I was told that such stations cannot just be erected anywhere, there has to be sufficient capacity in the local network to cope with the load. The total battery capacity on the London vehicles is 324kW/h.
Using both cables simultaneously enables the bus to be charged in five hours. Using one would take twice as long
Beneath the rear flap is quite spacious
The twin seven pin sockets with covers into which the charging guns are inserted
On the road
I travelled as a passenger on one of the BYDs which was heavily laden and it was both quiet and swift. It will take drivers a little while to acclimatise to them because maximum torque is available as soon as you touch the accelerator, which requires a new approach to driving the vehicle on the part of the driver. Coupled to this, as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator there is an immediate retardation effect as the electric motor instantly becomes a generator, which will also require driver acclimatisation. Initial take off in the depot yard sent me flying backwards, fortunately soft landing on a strategically placed PR man, but thereafter the journey was pretty smooth. The vehicles only arrived in London a few days before the launch so the process of training all of the driving team has yet to be completed.
I have seen BYD buses at shows before and not been very impressed with body aspects, which have tended to lack finesse and have claustrophobic interiors because of the need to cram in as many batteries as possible. The London examples still have a poor forward view for passengers because of the full height battery enclosures over the front wheelarches but otherwise the standard of finish was much better than previous e-buses I have seen. To what extent this is the result of BYD improvement and to what extent it is down to a prolonged sojourn at Hants & Dorset trim, who prepared them to meet the needs of VoSA and TfL before their arrival in London, I could not say.
The interior is the best I have yet seen from BYD
The maximum ULW figure quoted on the bus side was 14,000kg, although I am told that the WVTA figure is 13,800kg. Each of the battery packs contains 168 cells, each cell weighing 6kg, giving a total of 1,008kg. The weight of the three traction battery packs together is therefore 3,024kg.
Capacity details had yet to be added to the vehicles though they will be certified for 21 seats and a total of 62 passengers. This is nominally less than the Citaros they will work alongside though in terms of physical space available both are already practically limited to around 50 people. Capacity could be increased if, as has been mooted, Brussels decides to raise the permitted maximum GVW to a maximum of 19-tonnes across the EC, which would give an additional 12 or more standees.
Longer term
The introduction of the BYDs in London is part of a move to evaluate electric buses that will also see four electric Optare MetroCity buses enter service with London United in the spring of 2014. Funded through the Green Bus Fund, they will operate from Hounslow Garage on the H98 service which terminates outside the building.
Two further electric buses will be sourced through TfL’s technology demonstration budget. By the end of 2014 TfL expects to have around a dozen electric buses of various types in operation.
Matthew Pencharz, Senior Environment and Political Advisor to the Mayor of London, said: ‘The Mayor has made it a top priority to further reduce the environmental impact of London’s bus fleet. Alternative technologies, such as these electric buses, will bring genuine long term benefits in tackling CO2 and PM emissions. The arrival of these pure electric buses compliments a whole range of measures the Mayor is supporting, including hybrid and hydrogen technology, which is already delivering improvements to air quality.’
TfL is also looking at induction charging for double deck diesel hybrids as part of the European ZeUS project. Although they will still be diesels, the additional electrical energy will reduce the draw on the engine.