AUTONEWS

A new bus concept, bringing together fully electric and hybrid technologies
Eletra will participate in Lat.Bus & Transpúblico 2018, the Latin American Transport Fair, which will be held from July 31 to August 2 at the Transamérica Expo Center in São Paulo. The company, a pioneer in the development and production of electric and hybrid buses in Brazil, will present Dual Bus, a new electric / hybrid vehicle concept already in use by Metra Transportes, in the ABD Corridor in Greater São Paulo.Dual Bus is considered the best technological proposal for urban transport for being able to circulate in different configurations, such as hybrid, trolleybus and hybrid or pure electric. Configured to run on the Metropolitan ABD Corridor, operated by Metra Transportes, it has 13.2 meters in length and capacity to carry 82 passengers.It has an electric motor developed by WEG and a generator formed by a diesel engine powered by the OM 924 Series A Euro V developed by Mercedes-Benz specially for the project. It is equipped with modern Alisson automatic transmission, which facilitates the driver's task and brings comfort to the passengers. The gearshifts and speed changes smoothly, without fuss, even with the vehicle crowded and on a runway.The vehicle is powered by an advanced set of 193 lithium batteries, connected in series, installed in four compartments over the hood. In the Pure Electric version, these batteries allow for quiet, soft and powerful traction. The Dual Bus slides smoothly on the runway, without discharging any polluting material into the atmosphere.Connected to the air network, such as trolleybus, it does not emit any type of pollutant gas in the operation. The same vehicle, however, can operate without relying on the overhead network when the electric-hybrid mode is selected. In this mode, the operation of a diesel or biodiesel generator engine feeds the electric motor.The technology is hybrid buses in series, ie both engines. The electric and the combustion engine work together constantly, but it's just the electric motor that makes the bus move. As the diesel engine only serves for the generation of energy, it can be of smaller displacement than the conventional propeller of a bus, generating less pollution and noise. The result is a reduction in pollutant emission of 95% compared to that of a regular diesel bus.
Because of this feature, the engine developed for the design is a 7.0-liter diesel instead of the traditional 12-liter diesel. It is also possible for the vehicle to operate only on the energy stored in the batteries regardless of grid area and generation of the fossil fuel engine. In this way, the model combines the technologies of pure electric and trolleybus.The hybrid model also provides the advantage of significantly reducing the emission of pollutants and can reach zero in operation with the engine off. In the hybrid version the fuel consumption has a reduction of 28%. As pure electric or trolleybus, in addition to the zero emission, consumes 38% less energy by the regenerative braking efficiency.Dual Bus does not require investment in charging infrastructure for batteries because when it operates as a hybrid or electric the batteries are recharged in the braking by means of a system known as kers, which identifies kinetic energy recovery.When the brake is turned on the electric motor turns a power generator that would be wasted in the brakes, reused and stored in the battery bank. The bus can travel up to 20 kilometers as pure electric, using only battery power.