Bus fleet in Calif. hops aboard wireless charging

Electric buses operated by the Antelope Valley Transit Authority will soon be topping up with power simply by stopping over an electromagnetic coil at the local transit center in Lancaster, Calif.

Two 50-kilowatt coils, costing $350,000 apiece, have been installed and are being tested. Once they go into regular operation at the end of this month, they'll add about five miles of charge in 10 minutes, more than enough to keep the buses topped up as they go out on their routes and return periodically to the transit center.

"That five to 10 minutes of charge over and over will give them the range to go even their longest routes," says Zachary Kahn, director of government affairs, North America, for BYD Heavy Industries, the Chinese company that builds Antelope Valley Transit Authority's electric buses.

But the authority's not stopping there. It also bought 11 coils at 250 kWs apiece, good for 25 miles additional range in 10 minutes. The package includes vehicle adapters from Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification Inc. of Salt Lake City.

While auto manufacturers are just getting into wireless charging, other industries are already there. Aside from buses, wireless charging also can work for delivery trucks and service vehicles such as forklifts that operate over fixed routes where they can top up with power frequently.

"We want to be all electric by 2018," says Len Engel, executive director of Antelope Valley Transit Authority, whose service area covers a number of communities in the California desert north of Los Angeles. The authority has an added incentive for going all electric -- local jobs. BYD builds the electric buses in Lancaster at a factory that employs about 300. 

Engel acknowledges that $350,000 is a lot of money for the coils, but he says it's worth it. That's because electric buses cost $1.20 a mile less to operate than the older diesel buses in the fleet. 

The savings mounts up quickly on the authority's buses, some of which travel over 200 miles a day on their routes. 

Says Engel: "We make it up in operating costs. We make it up in maintenance costs. A typical diesel bus will go through a couple of transmissions in its lifetime. These buses don't' have transmissions." 

Continual "opportunistic charging," in which vehicles stop and take on power in short intervals, means transit authorities can buy buses with smaller batteries, says Michael Masquelier, CEO of Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification. 

"That's our business model. By having high-power charging, you can have less battery," he says. "It reduces the weight and the cost. The size of battery pack you purchase is lower."