Voltabox to deliver batteries for US Trolley-buses
The US transport operator Dayton RTA has selected Voltabox as a battery supplier following the closing of their pilot phase for electric trolleybuses. The contract entails the delivery of a total of 75 battery systems.
The Ohio-based company Dayton Regional Transit Authority is taking their first step towards renewing their 20 year old trolleybuses and procure 26 modern equivalents, which can alternatively draw power from an overhead wire or from internal batteries. Voltabox is delivering the required high voltage traction batteries, which can be charged while driving with contact to the overhead wires.
The battery systems will have an energy content of 66.7 kWh, using prismatic cells using lithium titanate oxide (LTO) chemistry. According to company figures, the batteries are capable of a 24 km range without overhead wire contact, and have a lifetime duration of about 14 years.
As of 2014 the transport company in Dayton has been testing two bus prototypes with Voltabox battery systems. The university town in the northeast USA is looking back on a long tradition with such measures: electronic trolleybuses have been used there for about 130 years. The new trolleybuses are scheduled to start being used in early 2019, and the first vehicles will be delivered this year. According to Jürgen Pampel, the Voltabox chairman, the contract came at the same time as a major LTO technology breakthrough. The company has recently also provided battery systems for trolleybus fleets in Seattle, San Francisco and Linz recently.
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