The 'Harrogate Electrics' Opportunity Charging Battery Buses
This film primarily shows the Volvo 7900e electric buses in Harrogate, Yorkshire, UK which have their batteries top-up charged during the day at the town's bus station.
Top-up charging bus batteries at a route terminus and / or other convenient locations is known as 'Opportunity Charging' (and sometimes OppCharge). The reason for doing this is that it extends the range of the working day (ie: distance that can be travelled) without needing to carry sufficient stored energy (ie: batteries) when the bus enters service.
Batteries are very heavy and buses have a legally mandated axle weight limit ... carrying more batteries (to extend the range between charges) can sometimes mean that the overall number of passengers who can travel on the bus has to be reduced.
The battery charging system used in Harrogate involves a pantograph that lowers on to charge bars located on the roof of the bus. Some people refer to this as 'panto down'.
There is also a commercially rival system where a pantograph is stored on the roof of the bus, when opportunity charging it is raised to make contact with an overhead charging unit. Often called 'panto up' this is very briefly seen at the end of this film.
Also briefly seen in this film are the 1990s battery electric minibuses in Oxford, which to use present-day terminology 'opportunity charged' outside the railway station.
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More Electric Buses arriving this summer ☀️
Surely it would make more sense for "pantograph up" charging, for easy conversion to trolley buses in future?
@CitytransportInfoplus
6 ай бұрын
Trolleybuses need totally different fitments for the trolley poles.
@caramelldansen2204
6 ай бұрын
@@CitytransportInfoplus fair!
@realfrowz
6 ай бұрын
@@CitytransportInfoplusis this a new type of a Electrostar what's with pantograph 😂
@CitytransportInfoplus
6 ай бұрын
Its a bus, designed and built by Volvo@@realfrowz
@matthewroberts1828
28 күн бұрын
This is a part of the answer, well done.
Theres no such thing as buses in london aren’t allowed to reverse with drivers. When needed if it’s safe to do so they can reverse without assistance and actually 2 or 3 times I have seen buses reverse with passengers for reasons like bus infront blocking way and lots of traffic and various reasons.
Will these be in London?
@CitytransportInfoplus
6 ай бұрын
Not as far as I am aware, but the Schaffhausen buses seen at the end of my film will be in London, albeit in rigid rather than articulated format and using the 'pantograph down' version of opportunity charging
@chrisstephens6673
6 ай бұрын
I had it in the back of my mind that buses were not meant to reverse with passengers on board, or is that just a London thing, if at all? Oops. Meant as a stand alone comment.
What is the range?
@CitytransportInfoplus
Ай бұрын
sorry but I do not know - one of the reasons for this day-time top up charging is to allow for fewer batteries and a shorter range (per charge) than would otherwise be needed had the buses only been charged at night
Nice to see other places having greener buses including Harrogate. I do think that battery powered buses is the solution to reduce Co2 emissions and to make the environment cleaner and safer for everyone to enjoy.
Virtue Signalling at it's Worst