All aboard Australia’s own electric bus

Working in partnership with BusTech, Swinburne University of Technology has helped develop the first electric bus to be designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia.

The first concept demonstrator bus has been unveiled at the Maintenance Conference and Bus Expo in Melbourne.

Pro Vice-Chancellor, International Research Engagement, Professor Ajay Kapoor, said Swinburne was well placed to work and conduct research on electric vehicles, bringing together experts from the automotive industry, working alongside academics with expertise in electric vehicle technologies.

“Our research and development has involved solving the challenges of integrating electric vehicle technologies using computer-aided engineering to design and configure sub-systems into the bus platform,” Professor Kapoor said.

“We developed high- and low-voltage electrical systems for the bus, including the design architecture for electrical circuit motor controls, supervisory control and other control systems to ensure the most efficient operation for the electric bus.”

Professor Kapoor said one of objectives of the electric bus development was to come up with a future-proof concept, which will enable upgrades as the technology evolves.

“This was a key aspect to achieving product life-cycle cost savings,” Professor Kapoor said.

“On average, the electric bus will be 80 per cent cheaper to maintain than the diesel busses currently being driven in Australia.

“I’d really like to see the Australian government invest in this technology. For the sake of the environment, as well as the future of manufacturing in Australia,” Professor Kapoor said.

The electric bus project is a joint collaboration between BusTech (part of Transit Australia Group), the Australian Government’s Automotive Cooperative Research Centre- AutoCRC and the Malaysian Government.

Source: http://www.tandlnews.com.au/