biotect
Designer
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Unfortunately, I could only find two videos of the IVECO Ellisup; skip ahead 1 minutes 30 seconds into the second video:
So in compensation, here are some photos:
For high-resolution versions, see http://www.iveco.com/en-us/press-ro....aspx?NodeId=381&Title=Busworld Kortrijk 2013 .
In many ways the IVECO Ellisup is my favorite. Sure, it doesn't recharge via super-cool under-pavement induction, as per Bombardier. But rather, as per Volvo, the Ellisup recharges with an old-style pantograph that extends up from the roof. But the Ellisup's electricity storage is an innovative combination of lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors; it travels 8 to 10 km before it needs to recharge; it recharges super-fast, in just 4 minutes; the windows are extra-large and provide panoramic views; LED mood-lighting changes with the weather, yellow if it's raining, blue if it's not; and all of the motors are hub motors....
thjakits, you especially should like that last detail. Using hub motors allowed the Ellisup's designers to lower and widen the floor, because there was no longer any need to accommodate axles or a drive shaft. IVECO then claims that overall passenger capacity increased 20 % in comparison to a more conventional bus of comparable size.
I also love the Ellisup's design, and I love it for the same reason that I've loved all the designs that I have praised throughout this thread: the Ellisup is curvilinear on both the outside and the inside. And on the inside it incorporates a great deal of wood, but in a "modernist" sort of way, successfully combined with other design elements that appear to be robust aluminum. This is very advanced, sophisticated interior design. Of course the Ellisup is a transit bus, not an expedition motorhome, and it has ridiculously small wheels, because tram-like transit buses don't need bigger. But along with the videos documenting other recent electric trolley bus developments, the Ellisup demonstrates just how quickly and radically various kinds of electric technologies are changing the engineering parameters of even the most conventional vehicles, and how those engineering changes in turn affect design possibilities.
Notice one detail in particular: like MAN's Lion City Hybrid, the Ellisup and the Volvo 7900 mount their batteries and/or super-capacitors on the roof, not on the floor. In the case of the MAN Lion City Hybrid, the product literature explains that roof-mounting allowed creation of a more effective cooling system for the batteries. Recall that one of the reasons why the DesignLine buses tested in New York City failed, is because the battery packs were located in the rear, near the Capstone turbine, and one bus sold to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina spontaneously caught fire when (allegedly) the batteries overheated -- see post #504 and following, at http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...igid-Torsion-Free-Frame?p=1652358#post1652358 . So batteries and super-capacitors clearly have "temperature issues" that need careful consideration.
On the other hand, Landrover is now selling a hybrid Rangerover with batteries mounted in the floor. So if Landrover can mount batteries there, theoretically the TerraLiner could do so as well. But just thought I should "red-flag" the roof-mounting of batteries that we see in the Lion City Hybrid, the Volvo 7900, the Ellisup, and a number of other similar buses. For instance, the following is electric trolley bus is made by Van Hool, and used in Milan -- again, see http://www.trolley-project.eu/filea...lleybuses_-_Main_Features_and_Experiences.pdf . It is "dual mode", meaning that it can also operate independently of the overhead catenary system of electric wires, because it has a diesel motor, a 100 KW generator, and super-capacitors. Notice how the super-capacitors, circled in orange, are mounted on the roof:
In any case, these videos make it clear that Proterra is not the only game in town, and even less so Brighsun. In fact, once big industry names like Volvo, Bombardier, and Iveco start entering a given transportation arena, it becomes all that much more likely that start-ups like Proterra and Brighsun will fail. Competing against Volvo, Bombardier, or IVECO would be most daunting indeed. And against IVECO especially, because IVECO is a comparatively low-cost producer, and IVECO has lots of experience with electric trolley bus design, manufacturing, and real-world implementation.
So too the smaller, niche markets for all-electric vehicles are already occupied. For instance, Tecnobus, an Italian company, has been producing a small all-electric bus for over 20 years, and has sold real-world vehicles (as opposed to mere vaporware) throughout Europe -- see http://www.tecnobus.it/home/en/prodotti.html , http://www.tecnobus.it/home/en/il-nostro-mercato.html , and http://www.tecnobus.it/home/en/rassegna-stampa/index.php .
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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST
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Unfortunately, I could only find two videos of the IVECO Ellisup; skip ahead 1 minutes 30 seconds into the second video:
So in compensation, here are some photos:
For high-resolution versions, see http://www.iveco.com/en-us/press-ro....aspx?NodeId=381&Title=Busworld Kortrijk 2013 .
In many ways the IVECO Ellisup is my favorite. Sure, it doesn't recharge via super-cool under-pavement induction, as per Bombardier. But rather, as per Volvo, the Ellisup recharges with an old-style pantograph that extends up from the roof. But the Ellisup's electricity storage is an innovative combination of lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors; it travels 8 to 10 km before it needs to recharge; it recharges super-fast, in just 4 minutes; the windows are extra-large and provide panoramic views; LED mood-lighting changes with the weather, yellow if it's raining, blue if it's not; and all of the motors are hub motors....
thjakits, you especially should like that last detail. Using hub motors allowed the Ellisup's designers to lower and widen the floor, because there was no longer any need to accommodate axles or a drive shaft. IVECO then claims that overall passenger capacity increased 20 % in comparison to a more conventional bus of comparable size.
I also love the Ellisup's design, and I love it for the same reason that I've loved all the designs that I have praised throughout this thread: the Ellisup is curvilinear on both the outside and the inside. And on the inside it incorporates a great deal of wood, but in a "modernist" sort of way, successfully combined with other design elements that appear to be robust aluminum. This is very advanced, sophisticated interior design. Of course the Ellisup is a transit bus, not an expedition motorhome, and it has ridiculously small wheels, because tram-like transit buses don't need bigger. But along with the videos documenting other recent electric trolley bus developments, the Ellisup demonstrates just how quickly and radically various kinds of electric technologies are changing the engineering parameters of even the most conventional vehicles, and how those engineering changes in turn affect design possibilities.
Notice one detail in particular: like MAN's Lion City Hybrid, the Ellisup and the Volvo 7900 mount their batteries and/or super-capacitors on the roof, not on the floor. In the case of the MAN Lion City Hybrid, the product literature explains that roof-mounting allowed creation of a more effective cooling system for the batteries. Recall that one of the reasons why the DesignLine buses tested in New York City failed, is because the battery packs were located in the rear, near the Capstone turbine, and one bus sold to the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina spontaneously caught fire when (allegedly) the batteries overheated -- see post #504 and following, at http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...igid-Torsion-Free-Frame?p=1652358#post1652358 . So batteries and super-capacitors clearly have "temperature issues" that need careful consideration.
On the other hand, Landrover is now selling a hybrid Rangerover with batteries mounted in the floor. So if Landrover can mount batteries there, theoretically the TerraLiner could do so as well. But just thought I should "red-flag" the roof-mounting of batteries that we see in the Lion City Hybrid, the Volvo 7900, the Ellisup, and a number of other similar buses. For instance, the following is electric trolley bus is made by Van Hool, and used in Milan -- again, see http://www.trolley-project.eu/filea...lleybuses_-_Main_Features_and_Experiences.pdf . It is "dual mode", meaning that it can also operate independently of the overhead catenary system of electric wires, because it has a diesel motor, a 100 KW generator, and super-capacitors. Notice how the super-capacitors, circled in orange, are mounted on the roof:
In any case, these videos make it clear that Proterra is not the only game in town, and even less so Brighsun. In fact, once big industry names like Volvo, Bombardier, and Iveco start entering a given transportation arena, it becomes all that much more likely that start-ups like Proterra and Brighsun will fail. Competing against Volvo, Bombardier, or IVECO would be most daunting indeed. And against IVECO especially, because IVECO is a comparatively low-cost producer, and IVECO has lots of experience with electric trolley bus design, manufacturing, and real-world implementation.
So too the smaller, niche markets for all-electric vehicles are already occupied. For instance, Tecnobus, an Italian company, has been producing a small all-electric bus for over 20 years, and has sold real-world vehicles (as opposed to mere vaporware) throughout Europe -- see http://www.tecnobus.it/home/en/prodotti.html , http://www.tecnobus.it/home/en/il-nostro-mercato.html , and http://www.tecnobus.it/home/en/rassegna-stampa/index.php .
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