Chinese bus manufacturer chooses Maxwell’s ultracapacitors

Maxwell Technologies has completed delivery of 720 of its 48-volt multi-cell Boostcap ultracapacitor modules to Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co., Ltd. for installation into 45 hybrid buses.

For its part, Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus, which sells large-and-medium-sized luxury buses and light vans under the trade mark of Golden Dragon, is producing diesel-electric hybrid buses for Hangzhou Public Transport Group Co., Ltd.

On the development, Golden Dragon’s Hybrid Bus Program Engineer George Dong said that the 48-volt Boostcap module gives the company a versatile building block for easy integration into various high-voltage configurations for heavy vehicles.

Golden Dragon delivered the first prototype hybrid bus with an ultracapacitor-based energy storage system to Hangzhou in July 2007, for comparison with other hybrid drive systems under actual operating conditions.

According to Maxwell, Boostcap modules meet transportation industry requirements for watt-hours
of energy storage and watts of power delivery per kilogram, and are designed to perform reliably through one million or more deep discharge cycles, or about 10 years of operational life for most vehicles.

For Maxwell, the revenue of Boostcap ultracapacitor increased by 76 percent to $6.8 million in the second quarter, compared with $3.9 million for the same period last year.

In the recent past, the company had also received an order from Vossloh Kiepe GmbH, a producer of heavy vehicle drive systems, for 300 125-volt Boostcap ultracapacitor modules for emission-free electric trolley buses it is producing in collaboration with Van Hool NV for the Milan, Italy, municipal transit system.