| Urban
Problem / Buses V Cars / Electric
V Diesel / Buses V Trams / Electric
Bus Design The Key Criteria / Electric Vehicle Solution |
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Topic
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| Today
the world's transport systems are almost totally dependent on oil
as their main source of energy. The supply and cost of crude oil can
vary considerably and is affected by international political stability
and other factors. |
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| Many
cities throughout the world suffer from two major problems: road traffic
congestion and urban environmental pollution, both are a result of
the ever increasing passenger car population. |
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is now overwhelming evidence of the global requirement for zero emission
public service vehicles including: Buses, Light Rail (trams) and Metro
(mass transit) systems. These systems help reduce city congestion,
pollution and the exclusive dependence on oil. |
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| Replacing
several cars with one bus makes sense as one bus occupies the space
equivalent to three cars. The smallest intelligent motors' bus however,
has the capacity to replace twelve average cars, thereby making more
efficient use of road space. |
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| Over
the past few years there was an increase in the number of cars on
UK roads of over 50%. If present trends continue, the number of cars
on UK roads will double by the year 2000. This represents about 550
thousand million vehicle kilometres per annum in vehicle journeys.
The argument can be applied globally. |
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| 1.
Everyone knows that the supply of fossil fuel for motor vehicles is
finite and therefore we have an obligation to use this fuel much more
carefully than we have in the past. |
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| 2.
The increasing use of fossil fuel directly increases pollution. |
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| 3.
Buses are a safer way to travel - they are proven to be the safest
road vehicle. |
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| Today,
nearly all buses are powered by diesel engines, which need a high
degree of maintenance to retain their designed rate of energy consumption
and to minimise pollution. Furthermore, the maintenance requirement
increases significantly as diesel engined buses get older, reducing
utilisation and increasing costs. |
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| Replacing
old fleets is expensive and the drift of passengers to private cars
gives rise to a perpetuating cycle of decline, creating reduced bus
services, increasing costs and a lack of investment. |
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| Electric
powered buses using state-of-the-art technology offer an opportunity
to reverse this trend and create an exciting future. |
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| Electric
powered vehicles use less energy (no consumption when stationary)
and have significant lower energy costs than diesel. They also enjoy
a much lower and fairly constant maintenance profile throughout their
operational life which can be up to fifty per cent longer than their
thermal engined counterpart. They offer proven reliability throughout
their operational life. |
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| Electric
buses offer the prospect of reduced noise, an ability to fit into
a more delicate urban fabric and superior passenger comfort. |
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| The
building of metro (rapid transit) and light rail (tram) systems involves
considerable people movements research, planning and substantial infrastructure
cost. Logistically however, they are an attractive high volume people
movement solution. |
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| They
lack flexibility due to one or more of the following factors: |
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| Being
over-sized for the average daily passenger demand; failure to cope
with peak demand; significant change of hourly passenger rates or
change of land use. However, subject to substantial passenger demand
they do produce a low passenger - kilometre operational cost. In general
terms such major infrastructure investment is only economic in large
conurbation areas. |
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| Electric
Bus Design the Key Criteria |
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| As
with all battery powered vehicles, electric buses have a daily operational
range restriction (readily calculated and proven by demonstration)
due to battery capacity and also must be operationally cost competitive
with their diesel engined counterparts. These two disciplines imply
an entirely new approach to bus design and manufacturing technology.
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| HIL
Technologies has never been interest in merely replacing diesel engines
with electric motors -- we aim to introduce electric powered buses
which are technically superior to any current or near future competition. |
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| We
aim to offer the world's most advance electric bus programme available
today. Our objective is to offer our fleet customers electric buses
which have: |
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lowest possible overall running cost per passenger/kilometre, together
with the highest levels of reliability, passenger comfort and safety.
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| Electric
Vehicle Solution |
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| Electric
powered vehicles offer the following: |
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The strategic choice of prime energy sources, some of which have very
low environmental impact, for example wave or solar energy, with the
added advantage of greater cost stability. |
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Zero emission urban transport and reduced urban noise. |
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Electric vehicles, being 'electronics on wheels' offer greatly improved
information systems through Telematics at greatly reduced cost. |
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Passenger comfort improvement due to reduced vibration and noise and
integrated solar powered air-conditioning. |
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