Since this year’s “Busworld” fair in Brussels, a new trend has now picked up speed in the bus industry. Several companies have specialized in the conversion of diesel buses to electric drive. The conversion is not only sustainable, but also significantly better in terms of investment and operational cost than the procurement of new electric buses according to the suppliers. We had a look at the companies in order to give an overview of the growing market.
e-trofit
At the end of 2017, in-tech, headed by Andreas Hager, launched the pilot project “e-troFit”. A team of specialists from all areas of vehicle development engineered a conversion solution for city buses. The idea was successful the decision was taken to develop a serial solution.
Technically, the conversion from diesel to electric buses is quite a challenge. One advantage is that the ZF axles installed on many diesel city buses can be replaced by a ZF AxTrax AVE electric portal axle. The electric axes are driven by liquid-cooled asynchronous motors with a power of 125 kW each.