Luxembourg can now fast-charge the city’s electric hybrid buses

A fully-charge cycle will take just three to six minutes!

A fully-charge cycle will take just three to six minutes!

On February 10th, Ville de Luxembourg inaugurated two fast-chargers for the electric hybrid buses at the city’s central station. The city owns 5 such buses made by Volvo, which will be fully charged in three to six minutes, during the layover times at the end point of the bus route. The chargers are based on OppCharge, an open interface for the automated charging of electric buses from any manufacturer and are connected to the cloud for remote diagnostics and management and receive over-the-air software upgrades to ensure maximum availability. Their current charging power is 150kW, but in case bigger future batteries require more power, then it can easily be increased to 300kW or 450kW, as the charger’s modular design allows it.

Luxembourg City aims to cut overall carbon dioxide emissions by at least 20% by 2020, investing in sustainable transport. “The decision to operate electric hybrid buses in the City of Luxembourg perfectly aligns with our continuous efforts to create a sustainable city. The society will immediately benefit from this project through a cleaner environment, reduced noise levels and increased comfort during bus journeys. This ambitious pioneering project represents the starting point in our endeavor to a zero emission urban bus system for the City of Luxembourg in the near future”, says Sam Tanson, First Deputy Mayor of the City of Luxembourg, in charge of Finance and Mobility.

The chargers were installed by ABB, which has sold approximately 5,000 fast chargers around the world for passenger cars since 2010. “We’re delighted to have delivered 2 fast-chargers to Ville de Luxembourg to support their electric hybrid bus network. This is a growing market and we expect to see more commissions for our fast-chargers in future. These installations are required to be functional for many years, so it’s important to consider their longevity and ensure they are future-proof. ABB’s fast-chargers are flexible and adaptable. Their modular design allows charging power upgrades, they are cloud-connected for software updates and we closely follow the global standardization initiatives around electric hybrid and full electric buses”, said Urs Waelchli, Product Group Manager for EV Charging at ABB.

Source: ABB