Circontrol presents in Busworld Raption 150, its charger for electric buses

Raption 150 allows charging electric buses at the terminal stations and on depot

Circontrol will visit Busworld, the most important bus exhibition, for the first time. Busworld, that will take place in Brussels from 18 to 23 October, is the oldest and most famous bus and coach exhibition, with over 48 years of experience, 80.000 m2, 500 exhibitors and over 37.000 visitors in 2017. At Busworld Circontrol will present Raption 150, its 150kW EV charger designed for electric buses.

Circontrol bets on electric bus charging in a key moment for its extension all over the world. Right now, about 99% of electric buses are in China, but Paris, London, Mexico DF and Los Angeles are among the 40 cities that committed to buy only zero emission vehicles by 2025.

Now is the moment for the extension of electric buses. Firstly, because due to its intensive use and volume are key to reduce emissions. For every 1.000 electric buses, 500 barrels of diesel are displaced each day, while in comparison 1.000 electric vehicles remove just 15 barrels of oil demand. Besides, although its upfront cost is higher, but since they are constantly running and the cost per kilometre is considerably lower, the return of the investment is quick.

Raption 150, designed to charge electric buses

On this context Circontrol presents Raption 150, a new charger of Raption’s fast charger range that can charge 150kW at 600 volts, a voltage suitable for charging electric buses. Raption 150 allows facing some of the main problems identified by Charge Point Operators (CPO) allowing a high uptime thanks to its modular technology. This modular technology allows also scalability from 100kW to 150kW. Raption 150 allows also simultaneous DC charge by splitting the available power. Safety has also been taken into account with a connector care concept by means of gun locking feature and cable floating design, which results on a reduction of cable breaking risk and a frontal key-locked door providing an easy access to the inside of the charger. Charge point user comfort is also important. That’s why Raption 150 has an 8” touch-screen that provides readable instructions and a courtesy light that increases comfort and allows accessibility for the disabled.

Raption 150 is the perfect charger to charge buses at the terminal stations at the end or the beginning of the line. There the bus can make a longer stop to charge 30kWh in ten minutes, with this charge the bus can compete the journey until arriving to the terminal station and being able to charge again.

This load is enough to keep the bus running all day long and, although the battery is not completely charged, its not necessary that the bus arrives at the depot with a full battery. The electric bus can combine small loads during the day with a complete and slower load at the depot. Also, combining opportunity charge and charge on depot is the ideal strategy to increase batteries’ lifespan.

Raption 50 is one of Circontrol’s most popular chargers with over 1.000 units installed all over the world, and it is the perfect choice to charge electric buses on depot. As Raption 150, it has modular technology to assure a high uptime but its charging at 50kW makes Raption 50 the perfect choice to charge electric buses when they are staying on the depot for a few hours.

On the other hand, Circontrol has also an AC charger compatible with electric buses. It is Post eVolve that, by charing at 63 amps an amount of current not common in AC chargers, allows electric bus that spend several hours at the depot.