Germany Testing Electric Buses Capable Of Wireless Charging

When you consider how many people commute to work on a bus on a daily basis, you probably can’t help but think how much pollution they create as they continually drive around, dropping people off at their designated stops. We’ve seen the use of electric buses rise steadily over the years, but a German bus company is taking their electric buses one step further.

Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH, or RNV for short, is attempting to begin a pilot project that will see if wireless inductive charging technology would be viable for its electric buses. During the trial, two electric buses will be fitted with inductive charging technology that would recharge the buses through wireless transmitters embedded underneath the road’s surface. Inductive charging would benefit these electric buses as it would eliminate the need for lengthy overnight plug-ins, while at the same time equipping the buses with lighter batteries.

The information researchers are hoping to extract from this project will hopefully help them determine how inductive charging would fare on busy routes, which would help improve their infrastructure, batteries and the daily operations a charging system based on magnetic induction would require.

Daniel Perez
Categories: Transportation
Tags: bus, wireless charging