Hybrid examination in Dordrecht

Today I visited the beautifull city of Dordrecht. The reason being the handover and introduction of Volvo 7700 Hybrid. 27 new hybrid buses are gradually being phased in to replace the present diesel buses.

The event was organised by the “provincie of Zuid Holland” and by the operator Arriva. Already when arriving by the train to Dordrecht, it was easy to recognise the Arriva buses busy at the bus station near by. And to my surprise the pavement was decorated with information on the hybrid event.

The elderman of the provincie Asje van Dijk expalined the background in an introductory presenation: the province work consistently towards improved sustainability by a “Duurzaamheid Offensief”, “It is not good enough to wait and see. We need to act together”.

Dordrecht will save more than one million litre fuel every year by changing to the Volvo hybrid technology. And, mr. Van Dijk has visions for the future, the city of Dordrecht already makes trials with electric cars and being in the fore front of the technology is a way to stay updated also in the area of transportation technology competence, in a modern society.

Wubbo Ockels (prof. in sustainable technologies, former astronaut) gave an energising presentation on solar cars, solar boats and the future of environmental vehicles.

The Arriva Volvo 7700 Hybrid in Dordrecht really draw attention.

I, in turn, got to present the hybrid technology. When assessing the root cause of global warming the extensive energy use is the root. The Volvo 7700 Hybrid is realising five new technologies to enable the lowest fuel consumption on the market:

1, Electrification of auxilliaries such as Climate controll, air compressor and steering servo saves energy and is an enabler for –>

2, Start/Stop, shut down of the idling engine at bus stops, when the charge status of the battery allows it.

3, Utilising the I-shift gear box, the 12 gears and the high mechanical efficiency allows minimised losses in the power transmission to the wheels.

4, The engine is downsized from 9 litre to five litre. This enables a higher average load, when the engine is used, and thus a higher efficiency.

5, Break energy is recuperated from the kinetic energy of the bus. When breaking, the electrical machine does the breaking and the energy is stored in a litium ion battery and when accelerating the energy is used for the silent electric take-off from the bus stop.

One detail specific for Dordrecht is an alarm bell similar to those used for trams. It is used to warn the passenger at the bus stop for the approaching silent bus.

It was specially appreciated that Volvo could stand fully behind the offer and take responsability for example for the service. As always for new products all the answers as for service cost and spare parts are not awailable in the beginning. In order to still be able to proceed it is essential that all actors, authorities, operators and bus manufacturers make efforts to share the risk.

Now, when writing this im gliding through Holland by train. From a distance it looks like a miniature landscape; beautifull houses, canals, dikes, windmills, bridges, farms and green houses are all evidence (although difficult to catch with the camera) of a great environmental concern of the Dutch people. There are not many square meters in this country that does not have a specific purpose and thus carefully cultivated.

Last year some of the traditionalists in the public transport business said: “dont buy hybrids now, within a few years we will have serial hybrids for you”.

Now, when it is generally reconised that the Volvo parallell technology is in lead with superior efficiency to the serial hybrids in all type of traffic conditions, the same people say: “dont buy hybrids now within a few years we will have fuel cell buses, plug-in hybrids or fully electrical buses”. Fortunately, not all polticians buy into the wait and see lobbying. Saving one million litre diesel yearly is a substantial contribution to the “Duurzaamheid Offensief” in a city like Dordrecht.

Bus fleet renewal theme at UITP Congress

This week the UITP Congress took place in Dubai. Public transport stake holders from all over the world meet for seminars and exhibitions. Environmental issues are high on the agenda.

Volvo Bus presented our electro mobility offers:

Hybrid buses such as Volvo 7700 Hybrid and Nova Bus hybrid

Hybrid buses with plug-in possibility and extended electrical range

Fully electrical battery buses, as presented by Sunwin at the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010

Fully electrical super capacitor buses, in traffic down town Shanghai since 2006

We see a future where the different technologies target different kinds of operation. Diesel buses, hybrid buses, plug-in hybrids and fully electrical buses will grow in parallel.

In a speech at the congress, Volvo Bus CEO, Håkan Karlsson, presented data on the benefits of renewal of the bus fleet. This subject deserves a separate blog so let me come back in a near future. Never the less the conclusion is that the top three priorities to improve the environmental impact from person transports are:

1, Attract the car users to the buses

2, Exchange old buses to realise a renewal of the fleet

3, Invest in hybrid buses with low energy use, low emissions and low global warming impact

 

 

 

Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd, Swedish Minister of Infra Strucutre

 

The Swedish minister of infra structure Catharina Elmsäter-Svärd visited us. Sweden is about to “deregulate” the bus operations, meaning that it will be open for any bus operator to provide services to any new or existing rout. The open market will put the traveller in focus. In the future the primary challenge for the operators will be to attract new travellers; be it by environmental performance, price, comfort, riders privacy, access to internet, service frequency or door to door services.

 

The issue is complicated by the fact that communities are subsidising the transports today. In addition an open bus market will compete with heavily subsidised trains and trams. It will be interesting to see how the different electrified buses will compete with the rail bound electro mobility. The electrical buses will lower the cost for public transports. When will we see an open competition independently of if the wheels are of steel or rubber?

Dr. Rashid bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water

The Environmental Minister of the United Arab Emirate visited Volvo. When I visited Dubai two years ago the public transports were under development. Now, a driver less elevated rail and plenty of feeder buses provide transports in the city. In Dubai and Abu Dhabi, public transports target solutions to the congestion and air quality issues, mainly. As most dense cities with lots of very high buildings traffic congestion is an issue. It is encouraging to learn about the rapid development of the public transports as well as the interest in hybrid buses. 

 

More Volvo Hybrids for London

When the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, in 2006 announced that London was to buy only hybrid buses from 2012 onwards, it was received by the bus manufacturers with mixed feelings. On the one hand it was a clear commitment – the biggest commitment in Europe – with a reasonable time to prepare for the change.
Read here in article in the Guardian from 2006 about this.
On the other hand if the challenge was to be taken seriously it would require major investments.
 
Major actors like Volvo/Wrights and ADL accepted the challenge to secure the fuel consumption and performance. When the field tests started in 2009, a completely new European hybrid technology was launched. Since then and thanks to high levels of commitment, dedicated and driven co-workers from Volvo Bus  (and we must not forget more than 200 million Euros of investment)  we have been able to realise a hybrid double decker that not only saves 30-35% of the fuel but does so in all kinds of traffic conditions. The on-going updating of these early vehicles has secured and demonstrated the reliability and availability. 
 
Thanks to the initiative of the Mayors of London the new environmentally friendly technology is now  becoming more widely available  – over 100 hybrids are in service and several of the routes are almost 24/7 operations. It is therefore good news for the environment that London is now investing in more hybrid buses. The increasing oil prices, that we are now experiencing, make the London initiative even more right and less dependent on oil. London operators can now ramp-up the hybrids in their fleet. Most recently Arriva purchased 20 hybrid double deckers from Volvo.
Read the press release about the order here.

Electro mobility in Germany

A couple of weeks ago I visited the VDV (Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen) seminar on electro mobility in Berlin. German authorities are promoting many different alternatives to increase the sustainability of the transports. The ministry of enterprise concludes that Germany is in a unique position with its strong automotive industry and tradition in technology and research.
 
The National Platform for electro mobility will have the following focus areas
-Drivetrain technologies
-Battery technology
-Charging infrastructure
-Standardisation
-Materials and recycling
-Education
-Boundary conditions
Read more here
 
The national development plan for electro mobility aims at having one million electric cars in the streets of Germany by 2020. Already by 2018 selected cities are expected to be prohibited for conventional cars, to the benefit of electric cars.
 
I presented the Volvo strategy towards electro mobility. And, as you can guess, our hybrid technology is the back bone. We see a bright future for our unique versatile hybrid technology also in the long time perspective. For many applications with long daily travel hours in combination with variable driving conditions ranging from dense city to regional traffic the Volvo bus hybrid are superior to all alternatives in environmental performance.
 
Last year our competitors said: “the hybrid technology is not mature yet, wait a year or two and you will find reliable high performing buses in our offer”.
This year they say: “the hybrid technology is still not mature but if you wait a couple of more years there will be fuel cell buses or fully electrical buses”