New Heavy-Duty Electric Drivetrain Designed for School Buses

Options in gasoline alternatives for student bus transportation continue to expand. As we've talked about before, both propane and natural-gas engines are becoming more popular with school districts, thanks to their lower ongoing costs and better emissions. However, both of those are still derived from fossil fuels, and aren't a "magic bullet" solution to alternative-power issues.

One area that's lagged behind in the past is electric power in school buses. While increasingly adopted for consumer cars, electric motors have traditionally struggled to deal effectively with the weight, horsepower, and torque needed to move a school bus or other larger vehicles.

That may be soon to change, however. An exciting new beta program happening right now from Colorado-based UQM Technologies suggests that electric power may become far more viable for school buses.

New UQM Electric Drivetrain Due to Market in Spring '17

UQM recently announced they are partnering with electric-vehicle manufacturer ADOMANI to run an extensive beta testing program during the course of the fall. It will be testing out their new UQM PowerPhase HD250 Drivetrain, which offers several major advances over previous efforts.

The PowerPhase HD250 will feature a two-speed transmission, backed up by a transmission control unit from Pi Innovo for continuous power control. In turn, this will allow it to feature significantly better acceleration, torque, and horsepower than other attempts at large-vehicle electric drives in the past. It should also be able to handle heavier loads - important for full-size buses - while maintaining a small\light design with superior power usage.

These matter significantly in school buses since, of course, the responsiveness of an engine is a large part of what determines whether a driver can get out of bad situations where an accident could happen. Undoubtedly, many schools have been reluctant to make electric drives part of their student bus transportation system specifically because of the relatively sluggish response.

Direct-drive engines were an option, but these are extremely large, heavy, and relatively power-inefficient. The new UQM PowerPhase 250HD will hopefully bring the best of both worlds: the power of a heavy-duty engine but in a much smaller and more efficient package.

If all goes well with the beta testing phase, UQM will be taking full-scale orders in the spring.

Bring More Efficiency to Your Bus Operations With BusBoss

Before spending large amounts upgrading your fleet, you should look into the savings that are possible through an affordable software option. BusBoss systems allow you to heavily optimize every aspect of your student bus transportation network, discovering numerous cost savings across your entire district.

For more information, just contact BusBoss to learn more.