Report: battery swapping for transit buses
by Eric Loveday, Apr 29th 2010
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to Experiment With Switchable Battery Electric Buses, Better Place not involved
TOKYO - In Japan, at least, the idea of building electric vehicles with battery packs that can be switched out robotically when depleted apears to be catching on.
As California's entrepreneurial EV infrastructure developer Better Place was preparing the other day to cut the ribbon at opening ceremonies for the demonstration taxi battery swap station it has built in the center of Japan's capital city, a representative of one of the country's largest conglomerates casually announced
that it would be running a swappable-battery electric bus program next year.
The company is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds light rail systems and ships and airplanes and heavy machinery and car parts and once was the parent company of Mitsubishi Motors.
Swapping seems especially applicable to buses, taxis and intra-city delivery trucks.
And if Mitsubishi Heavy - which has a stated corporate goal of helping develop clean and fuel efficient infrastructure around the world - is getting into battery-swap technology, it opens the possibility of its sibling Mitsubishi Group company, Mitsubishi Motors, adopting the system for its i-MiEV and other, future electric vehicles.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradv...ric-buses.html
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/04/29...transit-buses/