Taiwan Alliance Set Up to Develop Extended-Range Electric Buses

The ultimate goal is to make Taiwan into a major OEM electric-bus producer filled with tier-one key-parts suppliers

By QUINCY LIANG

To provide additional propulsion options for public transportation, Taiwanese government-sponsored research institutes—the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC)—along with private companies Delta Electronics Inc. and Master Transportation Bus Manufacturing Ltd. recently formed an "Extended-Range Electric Bus R&D Alliance".

The new alliance aims to develop Taiwan's first homegrown extended-range bus, which is expected to provide a cleaner solution for local public transportation and offer a competitive product for the international market.

M.J. Wu, Director General of Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, served as witness at the alliance's founding ceremony. He noted that the annual production volume of the island's bus industry is about 2,200 units, most of which are only assembled by local makers with imported chasses and powertrain systems. The lack of homegrown technology has been the major stumbling block for the development of a bigger bus industry, Director General Wu explained.

"Taiwan companies, however, have not given up and have been aggressively striving to establish their own technological advantages so as to root the bus industry for sustainable development on the island," Wu said. "The extended-range electric bus R&D alliance is one of the best examples of the vigorous joint efforts that domestic private companies and high-level research organizations are undertaking to promote industrial development. In addition to building up a homegrown technological capability for extended range electric buses, the alliance can also be seen as a group of players who love our earth and want to protect the environment."

More Range Needed

The ARTC, one of the most important automotive-related research organizations in Taiwan, notes that under the impact of highflying gas prices and the global trend toward energy-saving and carbon-reduction, lower fuel consumption and more environmentally friendly public transportation solutions have been the focus of major efforts for years.

However, car batteries using currently available technology take several hours to fully recharge, so the use of pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is limited to commuting and other short trips. To extend the range, some manufacturers add a highly efficient internal combustion engine that powers a generator when the batteries run low. Such vehicles are called EREVs, as well as range-extended electric vehicles (ReEVs) or series plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (SPHEVs). Several models of these cars are to be commercialized as in this year, including GM's Chevy Volt and Opel's Ampera.

For the short distances that represent about 80% of all car trips, industry experts say, EREVs can operate in full electric mode and are therefore as clean and energy-efficient as BEVs. For longer distances, which represent only about 20% of mileage traveled, EREVs operate in generator mode; even then they consume substantially less fuel than conventionally powered cars, because the engine of an EREV is much smaller. In addition, an EREV engine operates at a constant, highly efficient rotation speed, while the engine of a conventional vehicle often operates at all kinds of (less efficient) revolution speeds.

ARTC reports that the development of the extended-range electric bus in Taiwan was inspired by the concern that domestic city buses run an average of 100 to 200 kilometers per day, so existing battery technology cannot meet their needs at the present time.

A senior official at Master Transportation says that his company's extended-range electric bus is powered by batteries, and that a diesel-fuel engine automatically kicks in to generate electricity and charge the batteries when the battery charge falls to a low level. The generator will not provide propulsion directly to the power train, he explains, so it can maintain at a constant revolutions per minute (RPM) speed for optimum energy efficiency.

Simon Chang, corporate vice president of Delta Electronics and president of the firm's automotive electronics business unit, says that his company has been pursuing several goals, including environmental protection, energy conservation, and love of the earth. Delta Electronics now provides total solutions for EV propulsion and power control systems, including battery management systems (BMSs), power control units, drive motors, and chargers.

Conserving Fuel and Saving the World

An extended-range electric bus that runs 100 to 200 kilometers per day in Taiwan, Chang explains, improves fuel efficiency by about 40%, saving about 30 liters of diesel fuel per day. He adds that in 2015, when the ratio of such vehicles in the local bus fleet will reach about 15%, the total fuel saving will amount to NT$100 million (US$3.3 million) annually and carbon-dioxide emissions will be reduced by about 10,000 tons.

Joe Huang, the catalyst of the bus R&D alliance, says that the tie-up among its members will further enhance the development of the extended-range electric-bus industry on the island. "Master Transportation is one of the few assembled-bus makers on the island, while Delta Electronics has been focusing on the development and manufacturing of high-efficiency power management systems," he explains. "ITRI has accumulated abundant experience and built up technical capability in vehicular propulsion systems and applications, so it can optimize extended-range solutions in bus applications. The ARTC is also expected to play a vital role in the alliance by providing bus chassis structural analysis, horsepower performance testing and certification, vehicular communication network design, comprehensive vehicle static and driving testing, and related system tuning and analysis. By working together, we can give homegrown extended-range electric buses eye-catching performance."

Huang says that the alliance will pour more than NT$1 billion (US$30.3 million) into several key technologies for extended-range propulsion systems, and that it will seek government subsidies. The first 100% homegrown propulsion system for extended-range electric buses is expected to be completed next year, and then Master Transportation will use the buses for all of its public transportation services in Taiwan.

The goal of the alliance is to boost the ratio of extended-range electric buses to 15% of local bus production in 2015, generating an annual production value of about NT$3.5 billion (US$116.6 million)—and, of course, contributing to the health of the Earth. In the next year, exports of electric buses and parts are expected to bring in about NT$10 billion (US$330 million).

The alliance also hopes to help local makers of extended-range electric buses and key parts play a bigger role on the international stage.

ARTC vice president C.C. Liao says that in 2014 global bus ownership is expected to reach about five million units (with an annual growth rate of 4.2%), with Asia accounting for 64%. In China alone annual sales of new buses reached 415,000 units in 2010, up 28% from a year earlier. (The total number of buses on Taiwan's streets and highways that year was about 29,000.)

The new R&D alliance is striving to integrate related resources and interested parties into an internationally competitive team for the development of electric buses for the international and domestic markets. Alliance members will put their efforts into development of the propulsion system, high-efficiency power conversion modules, homegrown bus-chassis system, onboard networks, and transmission systems, Liao says, with the ultimate goal of making Taiwan into a major OEM electric-bus producer filled with tier-one key-parts suppliers. (April 2011)

Captions:

1. (From left) Delta Electronic V.P. Simon Chang, Master Transportation chairperson Yu Li-ching, DoIT Director General M.J. Wu, ARTC president Joe Huang, and James Wang, deputy director of ITRI's Mechanical & System Research Laboratories (MSL).

2. The EREV concept (photo from the Internet).