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New Flyer Industries Inc. is developing the first North American designed and built 60-foot battery-electric/fuel cell hybrid bus that will operate in daily service. CALSTART, which will administer the project for the FTA, received the green light from the FTA for work to proceed.
The electric propulsion system being integrated into New Flyer’s Buy America-compliant Xcelsior X60 heavy-duty transit bus platform includes a combination of batteries, a fuel cell, and hydrogen storage. The electric drive bus will allow the fuel cell to operate at a relative steady-state, while the batteries will be able to both capture breaking energy and provide power for acceleration.
The announcement of the fuel cell bus follows New Flyer’s unveiling of a battery-electric propulsion system to the Xcelsior transit bus lineup at the American Public Transit Association Expo tradeshow in Houston, Texas.
New Flyer’s Xcelsior Electric is a 40" battery electric bus powered by a 100-300 kWh battery pack (scaled to customer need) that can be charged at stops via an Eaton pantograph-based system.
The Siemens Electric Drive System converts three-phase alternating current (AC) power to drive the traction motor by using direct current (DC) power from the batteries. When braking, the motor acts as a generator to recover energy, just like in conventional hybrid vehicles.
The air compressor and air conditioning compressors are electrically powered. DC power is converted to AC power and is supplied to each of these major systems separately. This allows each system to operate more reliably and efficiently, with minimum power consumption. The bus also as a converter to supply 24-volt DC power for power steering, interior fans, lights, and other accessories.
New Flyer has built six XE40s for North American customers, and expects five of them to enter service in the coming weeks. The sixth vehicle has commenced its FTA new bus model testing at the Altoona Bus Research and Testing Center in Altoona, PA.
New Flyer is partnering with Ballard Power Systems Inc., and Siemens on the bus that will be operated by Connecticut Transit (CTTransit) for 22 months of in-revenue-service operations. Ballard will supply a next-generation fuel cell power plant that is smaller, lighter and lower in cost than existing models.
Funding for the bus came in part from the FTA’s National Fuel Cell Bus Program.