Wrightbus orders battery systems from Forsee Power
Forsee Power has received another major order from Wrightbus. The Northern Irish bus builder is ordering Zen Slim battery modules from the French battery manufacturer for 420 of its electric buses. In addition, the battery systems of the Pulse model are to be supplied for Wrightbus’ hydrogen programme.
The order for the battery-electric buses includes three variants of the modules with 11, 16 and 21 kWh capacity. As the name Zen Slim suggests, they are characterised by their flat format, which should allow easy integration into the vehicle chassis. The battery manufacturer announced them in January last year. At that time, Wrightbus was already named as the first customer for the modules.
According to the latest information, Forsee Power’s modules deliver total capacities of 333 kWh to 454 kWh for Wrightbus double-decker buses and 333 kWh to 550 kWh for single-decker buses. “Our new double-deck bus powertrain equipped with FORSEE ZEN SLIM batteries is the highest battery capacity for a UK Double Deck bus and is also extremely energy efficient,” said Robert Best, technical director at Wrightbus. The buses can reportedly be charged in just 2.5 hours and travel 320 kilometres on a single charge.
Forsee Power and Wrightbus have been cooperating since 2013. “We’ve been partnering with Wrightbus since the beginning of that journey, and such close link helped understand deeper market needs and develop the best offer in the market, constantly improving our technologies,” says Sébastien Rembauville-Nicolle, VP Business Development at Forsee Power.
Forsee Power says it has so far equipped 1,200 electric buses worldwide with its batteries. In the middle of the current month, the French battery manufacturer opened its production site in Poitiers. The plant has five assembly lines for electric bus batteries with a production capacity of 1 GWh. According to Rembauville-Nicolle, the fleet of vehicles equipped with the company’s batteries will more than double in the next twelve to 18 months.
The companies do not provide detailed information on the Pulse high-capacity battery systems for the Northern Irish manufacturer’s hydrogen programme. Hydrogen buses from Wrightbus will soon be on the road in Cologne. As reported, the company was awarded the contract for 20 guaranteed and 40 optional buses by Colognes public transport operator ‘Regionalverkehr Köln’.
0 Comments