Gruau and Bolloré unveil new battery-powered microbus
Vincent Bolloré and Patrick Gruau signed an agreement last February to develop electric, hybrid and ICE versions of the the Gruau Microbus. €10 million will be invested in the joint venture. The Microbus Gruau Électrique will use Bolore's lithium-polymer batteries as well as ultracapacitors developed by Batscap, a Bolloré subsidiary. The electric Microbus will hit the marketplace during the second half of 2009.
Gruau already offers the current ICE-powered Microbus in France, with up to 150 examples servicing thirty towns. An electric version with a range of 120 km (75 miles) was tested in Nantes in 2005. Bolloré and Gruau expect their EV bus to comprise two-thirds of future sales when it arrives next year.
[Source: Le Blog Auto]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 5:11PM (3/18/2008)
Such microbuses could prove popular if their routes dynamically adapt to provide door-to-door transport. Passengers would request service by calling a central dispatcher with a bank of computers. The simulated annealing software running on those would approximately solve a traveling salesman problem for each candidate bus and select the one that has to make the shortest detour.
Drivers would use satnav to follow the routes provided to them by the central dispatcher. France has a lot of unemployed, this would be a way to get some of them into work at modest differential cost. They would have to obtain a commercial drivers' license, of course.
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GenWaylaid 6:59PM (3/18/2008)
There are plenty of existing applications for micro-buses where these could do a lot of good. Airports and college campuses tend to have regular micro-bus service, and those buses don't travel very far in a day.
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kevin 7:19PM (3/18/2008)
Yeah i like the idea for #1 Yeah i see what your saying . I like the bus it is cute. I coudl also see this put in some work at the airport. Mnay airports have fixed destination in which they pick up passengers and deliver them to the terminals . A fleet of these could be used and when one is empty on battery the driver simply picks up another one and leaves the other one to charge. ! The only problem is that the capacity needs to be increased and the fact that charging during teh day would bring permium electric bill rates.
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Curt 3:05AM (3/19/2008)
If they turned that into a gas-hybrid RV and kept it at a reasonable price I think they could sell thousands of them in the states.
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