6th VDV Academy Conference Electric Buses - Market of the Future!? ElekBu 2015

The establishing of emission performance standards for new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles as part of the overall concept of the European Community to reduce CO2 emissions leads to greater commitment to the realisation of electric drive technology on the road as the CO2 emissions can be reduced significantly with the provision of electricity from renewable energy sources. This development is flanked supportively by in creasing difficulties in complying with the limits for particulate matter and noise emissions, particularly in urban areas. The discussion about the establishment of CO2 emission standards for heavy commercial vehicles and buses has also begun. The operating conditions for public transport facilitate the introduction of electric bus drive technology with storage units since the distances to be covered are fixed. Therefore, more and more transport companies plan to introduce this drive technology. Charging concepts, charging methods and components of charging systems are discussed. Operational experience with battery bus systems as well as solutions being implemented or planned at present illustrate that this bus drive technology can be realised and that standardisation proposals have to be prepared now. It is discussed how the dimensioning of the storage units is to be approached and the experience with the automated manufacturing process of batteries is presented. The conference ends with the presentation of a plug-in-hybrid bus and a battery bus. Parallel to the conference the exhibition ElekBu 2015 takes place, at which battery and plug-in bus manufacturers, their sub-contractors and companies advising transport companies on the procurement of these buses present their products and services.