Luxembourg orders double articulated hybrid buses with battery drive from Hess and Vossloh Kiepe

Voyages Emile Weber, the bus operator in Luxembourg, has ordered another three 24 m long double articulated hybrid buses of the type “lighTram” from the Swiss vehicle manufacturer Hess AG and the traction specialist Vossloh Kiepe. The new vehicles are also equipped with traction batteries and are to be handed over already by the end of 2014.

In 2009 the two longstanding partners delivered the first generation of double articulated hybrid buses to Luxembourg, which has now been operated continuously and successfully for five years.

Vossloh Kiepe delivers all the electrical traction equipment, the on-board power supply system and the energy storage units for the new vehicle generation. According to the customer requirement it has to be possible to operate the vehicles in the battery mode without the diesel engine, i.e. quietly and without emissions, in the about 3 km long zero-emission zone. To be able to fulfil this requirement, the vehicles are optimised technically and equipped with lithium-iron phosphate traction batteries for the line-service operation.

The battery is charged via a diesel generator, which is powered by a 220 kW Euro 6 diesel engine. Moreover, the kinetic energy, which emerges during braking, is stored temporarily by way of the two powered axles of the vehicle: Two electric traction motors with a power of 120 kW per motor drive two of the four axles. In that way not only good ride quality and safe electrical braking, but also a high degree of energy recuperation is ensured. Moreover, the vehicles are charged overnight in the bus depot via plug-in charging plugs. Intelligent, GPS-controlled power management ensures the best possible balance between the diesel mode and the battery mode of the vehicles.