Agrale develops hybrid bus in Brazil
O Estado de S. Paulo
While the government is still divided in relation to a program of incentives to electric or hybrid vehicles, Agrale, a 100% Braziliancompany that produces commercial vehicles, chassis for trucks, buses and tractors, presented yesterday a bus with hybrid technology developed in Brazil. If there is demand, the company can start sales in 2011.
Called Hybridus, the vehicle is electric and run on diesel, but, unlike some existing solutions in the international market, the diesel does not move the engine, only generates energy for the electric motor. The Hybridus has no battery, heavy equipment and with limited autonomy, informed Ubirajara Choairi, national sales manager of Agrale vehicles. The vehicle uses a system imported from German Siemens, with an ultra capacitor, equipment which replaces the battery, is lighter, cheaper and has longer life. "The reduction in consumption is of 30% compared to a fully diesel vehicle and the emissions decrease in the same proportion", says Choairi.
Today, the cost of the bus would be about R$ 600 thousand (US$ 333.3 thousand), the double of the price of a conventional one. "Without government incentives it is not feasible", admits Silvan Antonio Poloni, Agrale regional sales manager. Only the system imported from Germany, called Elfa, represents about 35% of the cost of the Hybridus. Antonio Claudino, marketing manager of Siemens in Brazil, says that the factory of the group in Jundiai (SP) is able to produce the system. "A demand for about a thousand buses a year will certainly allow local production", he says.
There are other experiences of hybrid buses in Brazil, one of Electra, from São Bernardo do Campo (SP). Since 2005, a small fleet circulates in the city and São Paulo. The company says the vehicle can be compared to a trolley, but instead of using electricity from the electric network, it generates its own energy on board. The Electra can be fueled with diesel, ethanol, gasoline or gas to produce energy through a generator motor. The electric motor is responsible for the wheels drive. Scania, from São Bernardo do Campo, tests ethanol-powered buses and Mercedes-Benz, with a factory in the same municipality, began tests with buses powered by ethanol made from sugarcane.