Electric cars are seemingly the way of the future. Even speed enthusiasts are slowly starting to find more speedy electric options open up to them, along with traditional carmakers who are starting to look into creating hybrid devices. Going electric is one of the ways we can reduce carbon emissions, and so is taking public transportation like the bus.
However at the moment, buses themselves produce a fair bit of pollution, not to mention are rather fuel inefficient. Enter Proterra, a startup by Ryan Popple who was an early employee at Tesla who has since envisioned a future in which electric buses could make the regular, diesel-chugging buses of today obsolete.
The company has designed an electric bus that can apparently drive a good 258 miles before requiring a recharge, putting it relatively on par with electric cars of today, if not better than some. What Proterra has done differently is approach the design as if it were a completely new vehicle, as opposed to trying to redesign the bus.
According to Popple, “I think it’s important to cut ties with the legacy technology. If you tell your engineering group one of the rules they have to stick by is they have to use all the old parts from the parts bin, you’re going to end up with a terrible product.” This has resulted in a bus with a carbon fiber body and a smaller battery system. This allows the bus to be lighter, require less energy, and has less wear and tear due to the fact that it isn’t made of metal.
It has its weight more evenly distributed which allows for better acceleration and turning. It remains to be seen when Proterra’s electric buses will become more mainstream, but for now we do like the direction they are headed.
Filed in . Read more about Electric Cars.