Zero-emission Proterra electric bus comes to Capitol Hill

Friday, October 30, 2009

Zero-emission Proterra electric bus comes to Capitol Hill

Posted by SharK at 7:09 AM

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Transportation Alternatives

Proterra electric bus - Click above for high-res image gallery

Altair Nanotechnologies has not had a completely successful string of events these last few years. They lost more money than expected in 2007 and were not always embraced by the investment community. But there was good news, too, like some government spending and a deal with Phoenix Motorcars (well, that's more a good news/bad news sort of thing). This week, though, the company is excited about showing off a rapid-charge hybrid bus in Washington, D.C. with partner Proterra.

The bus was on Capitol Hill this week and is full of impressive numbers. The big one is the company-calculated MPG equivalent of "18 and 29 miles per gallon diesel fuel equivalent fully loaded with 68 passengers -- 500% better than a comparable diesel bus," similar to numbers discussed when the bus was touring California and Pennsylvania earlier this year.

One of the technical advances that makes a lot of sense on this bus is the rooftop FastCharging hook-up. Proterra says this allows the Altairnano batteries to be recharged in 5-10 minutes. Earlier, we heard the bus would be able to go around 30-40 miles per charge, but this range has been dropped from the most recent press materials. Still, a powerful-enough charger at either end of a city route would be plenty to make zero-emission buses a reality. Oh, and these buses would need to be built, but Proterra has a plan for that, too. Details after the jump. Thanks to Luca R. for the tip!

Gallery: Proterra Electric Bus