Featured Hybrid Electric Buses in Wellington, New Zealand

The Tesla of Garbage Trucks Wants to Make City Buses More Sustainable - Curbed

"Wellington, New Zealand, had a serious issues with its beloved trolley system. Decades old, the vehicles rely on a system of overhead wires the city can’t afford to maintain, so it looked like municipal authorities would need to swap out the clean transport system for dirty diesel buses. But before the city revamped its mass transit system, a third way presented itself, a high-tech, more sustainable solution that may foreshadow a shift in how cities run their fleets of heavy vehicles, such as buses and garbage trucks....

The Wrightspeed hybrid system—an electric motor with extensive power and torque, a computer-controlled high-tech gear box and four-speed transmission, and a battery that’s charged by a gas-fueled turbine range extender called the Fulcrum—provides the push needed to move a heavy vehicle up hills with an electric engine, while giving it the extra juice needed to last through a long, arduous route with multiple stops. While the engine on a Prius works for a car or taxi, it’s just not powerful enough for a bus."

 

Trolleys are cute and all, but electric buses seem a lot more flexible. IMHO, Houston has been wasting a lot of money on its limited use light rail lines (overhead catenary electric system).