GE Demonstrates Prototype Hybrid-Battery Bus

GE Global Research, the technology development arm of General Electric Company, says it demonstrated a prototype transit bus with a hybrid battery — “hybrid” in this case means two different battery technologies to optimize power and storage. The company says the new type of battery can help electrify other larger, heavy-duty vehicles such as delivery trucks.

The dual battery system that produces zero tailpipe emissions pairs a high-energy density sodium battery with a high-power lithium battery. GE researchers believe a dual system with high power and energy storage capacity could achieve the optimal electric driving range and acceleration requirements at a more practical size, scale, and cost for larger vehicles.

The leading battery technologies today come with a trade-off between power and energy storage. Lithium batteries can provide power for acceleration, but are not yet equipped to store energy for driving more than short distances. Sodium batteries are on the opposite side of the spectrum — they can store large amounts of energy, but are less able to provide bursts of power.

GE says its dual battery combines the best attributes of both chemistries into a single system. In the hybrid transit bus demonstration, the lithium battery provides the high power needed for acceleration and braking, while the sodium battery offers an even electric power flow to extend the bus range.

The dual system can also reduce the cost of a battery up to 20 percent compared to a single battery system for vehicle applications like transit buses and delivery trucks that require significant power and energy storage capacity. The dual system can achieve these cost savings because by integrating less expensive battery chemistries without having to increase the size of a single battery to address both the vehicle’s power and energy storage needs.

GE adds that many of the 843,000 buses registered in the U.S. — including most of the 63,000 transit buses and 480,000 school buses — travel less than 100 miles per day. Enabling more of these buses to transition to an all-electric, zero emissions platform would dramatically reduce CO2 emissions and petroleum fuel consumption.

GE conducted the research for this project as part of a $13 million undertaking with the Federal Transit Administration and Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium, funded under the National Fuel Cell Bus Program.

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