Sustainable mobility is progressing in bigger steps, seeking to offer the greatest amount of travel to maximize vehicle performance while reducing setbacks. Precisely, in Spain they are working on a test that consists of traveling from Barcelona to Madrid by means of an electric bus.
The vehicle selected for this journey was a Karsan Atak EV, designed to be 8 meters long with a capacity of up to 52 passengers, which brings with it a power of 220 kwh (around 300 hp) and 300 kilometers of autonomy, using devices manufactured by Circontrol called Raption 50 to fulfill its recharging tasks.
The route of the journey was a success. The bus managed to reach its destination but with the particularity that it took 11 hours to travel the 611 kilometers that separate both cities, taking into consideration that three stops were made to recharge the energy of the Karsan Atak EV.
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At 6:30 in the morning the pilot test began from Sabadell to San Sebastián de los Reyes, arriving at 20:30, extending the stop times to study the results in the best possible way, according to Joan Sardà, CEO of e- buskar (manufacturer of the Karsan Atak EV).
Sardà determined that the trip was completed successfully, passing the test of the route at a technical, logistical and operational level, but was sincere when stating that it is necessary to have high-power chargers to reduce power restoration times and maximize the performance of the bus to make the trip a shorter journey.
On the other hand, one of the details that attracted the most attention was the temperature to which the batteries of the Karsan Atak EV were subjected as a result of the hot weather that was experienced during the tour. However, they managed to fight this setback by forcefully cooling them in order to return to their maximum capacity.
Finally, there is still a long way to go in the test, but with the promising results recently revealed, there is no doubt that it will soon be possible to cover this and other routes in the shortest amount of time using electric buses.
“Our assessment of the pilot test is very positive. On the one hand, he shows that it is possible to make this journey with more adverse conditions than normal”
Joan Sardà
Written by | Ronald Ortega