Corporate Social Review Magazine 1st Quarter 2013 | Page 19

REVIEW

Siemens’ innovative electric bus system
unique in Europe

In cooperation with the bus manufacturer Rampini, Siemens
made Europe’s first fully electric buses in daily route operation
a reality in the Austrian capital city of Vienna. The innovative
concept and drive technology of the electric buses come from
Siemens and ensure that vehicles emit no pollutants, since there
is no local combustion process. The heart of the drive system is
a Siemens electric motor. It functions as a generator and feeds
braking energy, which would otherwise be lost as heat, directly
back into the energy storage system.
The range of these purely electric buses is approximately 120 to
150 kilometers on a single charge and is dimensioned so that the
vehicles are highly flexible and always have sufficient reserve
power. The electrical bus obtains its energy at the terminal stops
through a rooftop pantograph, using the power grid of the tram
network. In bus route operation, rapid charging is completed
within 10 to 15 minutes. At night there is slow charging of the
energy storage system in the depot.
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