New battery chemistry may ‘green’ transit buses

A zero-tailpipe-emissions transit bus is in the works from GE Global Research, report canadiandriver.com and wired.com.

The new technology, according to canadiandriver.com, combines an energy-dense sodium batter with a high-power lithium battery, and could “help accelerate the electrification of bus fleets by combining the best qualities of each battery for cost efficiency.”

GE is pursuing the research in conjunction with the U.S. Federal Transit Administration and Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium, reports wired.com.

Canadiandriver.com explains that lithium batteries, while providing power, “are not optimized to store energy for driving range, while sodium batteries store large amounts of energy but are less optimized for power. The key cost advantage of a dual system is that it provides flexibility to integrate less-expensive battery chemistry without having to increase the size of the battery to address the vehicle’s power and energy storage needs,” reports canadiandriver.com.