Volvo and Heliox introduce new charging station for electric buses

Volvo Buses and Heliox have inaugurated a charging station for electric buses which will mean electrified buses and charging stations from different manufacturers can be used together.

Heliox charging station

The aim of this cooperative venture is to facilitate the introduction of electric bus systems in cities the world over and to further the development and commercialisation of electric buses and electric hybrid buses equipped with systems for DC opportunity charging using open standards.

The charging station (located at the Volvo Group R&D premises in Gothenburg) is based on the common OppCharge which has the following factors:

• Has common interface between charging station and vehicles and is CCS standard
• Has a charging power of 150, 300 or 450kW
• Is a cost-effective solution for buses as the pantograph can attach to the pylon, adding little weight to the bus roof
• Utilises conductive charging using current collectors, with communication between the bus and charging station via Wi-Fi
• Is supported by infrastructure providers: ABB, Heliox and Siemens, and bus manufacturers Ebusco, Iveco, Solaris and Volvo.
• Is now being implemented as a common interface in more than 12 countries.

With the new charging station, Volvo hopes to demonstrate that the company’s electric buses are compatible with chargers from several different manufacturers.

Volvo electric bus

“We are happy to work together with Heliox inaugurating yet another charging station based on the open interface for opportunity charging, OppCharge,” said Jessica Sandström, Senior Vice President City Mobility at Volvo Buses. “With OppCharge the world’s cities can rest assured that electric buses and charging infrastructure from different manufacturers are compatible with one another and that there is no risk of being restricted to specific manufacturers. This creates the right preconditions for accelerated transition to electric bus systems in cities all over the world.”

This is Heliox’s 20th charging station for electric buses in Scandinavia and the company’s charging systems can currently charge up to 450kW. In the nearby future it will be possible to charge 600kW.