CARTA’s electric buses to charge on the go in Chattanooga (timesfreepress.com)

by Judy Walton

Some of CARTA’s electric buses are about to break free of their batteries, using technology that could spell the end of the transit agency’s whole diesel fleet.

A $2.5 million federal grant announced Thursday will pay for three battery-powered electric buses that can recharge in minutes — in a garage or a streetside pulloff — and run city streets all day at 20 percent of the cost of running diesel buses.

The technology, called wayside induction, consists of two sets of electric coils, one buried in a garage floor, parking lot or street pulloff and the other mounted on the bus. The bus hunkers over the buried coil, the driver hits a switch and electricity flows wirelessly into the battery.

The electric buses now on the streets can go about 45 miles on a charge. A bus that could go more than 100 miles could be used on any CARTA route, not just the downtown loop, without a time-consuming battery change, CARTA Executive Director Tom Dugan said.

Announcing the grant Thursday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Chattanooga’s 20-year history of electric vehicle research and development figured heavily in the award through the Transit Investment in Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction grant program.
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more: http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/nov/18/cartas-electric-buses-charge-go/?local




Chattanooga? 20-year history? Really? I had no idea! I wonder if this had anything to do with President-Elect Al Gore ...