MIDDLE EAST FIRST HYBRID BUS TO BE UNVEILED
After passing the required tests, the Middle East’s first hybrid bus will be unveiled by the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2010) by Iran Khodro Industrial Group. The bus is the result of the collaborative efforts of this Group, Tehran University, Isfahan University of Technologies and Iranian Fuel Conservation Company (IFCO). Their efforts finally fructified with the production of the Iranian hybrid bus.
Mohsen Isfahanian, the hybrid bus project manager and a faculty member of Isfahan University of Technologies in this regard said that it was a four-year project and added, “The hybrid system designed in this project was installed on one of Iran Khodro Diesel Co. (IKD) city buses; the related tests regarding parts have been done and we are going to perform the vehicle test soon.”
There is a common global approach toward hybrid buses due to their parts in reducing pollutions and fuel consumption and many countries tend toward using such buses in their urban transportation system.
I’s been tried to employ the existing facilities to the greatest extent to design and manufacture the bus with the minimum cost. The diesel engine and the compressor, thereby, is exactly the same as IKD’s current products, while new parts and systems are going to be localized.
“In order to build the hybrid bus, the 260kw engine of the 457 bus has been replaced by a 130kw one with the 80% improvement in efficiency, thanks to the optimized performance of the diesel engine,” Isfahanian said an added, “this product brings about 30 to 40 percent decrease in fuel consumption and pollution.”
Isfahanian finally said, “The electric engine is capable of moving the bus independently; the regenerative engines connected to the wheels make it possible to convert the energy created by breaks to charge the batteries, while another way of charging is to plug in the batteries while the bus is parked.”
