Battery trains: cleaner, quieter and cost-effective.
Battery trains reduce carbon emissions and noise, improve air quality at stations, lower maintenance costs and enable flexibility on electrification, minimising passenger disruption during upgrades. As a retrofittable technology with the potential to start small and scale later, it’s the clear sustainable choice for decarbonisation. And, with the fast pace of development, batteries are future-proofed for the expected increases in range, improving their performance.
Battery Powered Trams
The battery-powered tram technology offers the major benefit of requiring no electrified infrastructure. The trams can operate on sections of routes with no overhead wires, such as historic city centres, and offer a range increase of up to 5km.
It’s flexible too. The new technology is based on an Onboard Energy Storage System (OBESS), with scalable battery capacity. It can be installed directly on the roof of existing trams – saving on costs all while ensuring better environmental performance for more sustainable cities.
Battery Commuter Trains
The battery-powered commuter trains – whether full battery, “hybrid” battery-electric or “tri-brid” battery-electric-diesel – are designed with reliability, sustainability, and efficiency in mind. This new generation of battery hybrid technology brings improved performance across the fleet – lower CO2 output, up to 50% reduction in fuel consumption, lower noise, reduced journey times, and additional power over normal performance.
Intercity Battery Trains
A quick and easy application of battery technology is to install it on existing or future intercity trains. Adding just one battery reduces emissions by more than 20% and offers cost savings of 20-30%.
The intercity battery-powered trains can cover 70km on non-electrified routes, operating at intercity speeds at the same or increased performance. Its modular design means this can be done without the need to re-engineer or rebuild the train and return it to service as quickly as possible for passengers.