Bombardier
Plans to test a new electric bus propulsion system on Île-ste-hélène.
There’s no budget, no timeline, no proven technology, much less shovels i n the ground or even a signed contract.
But it’s substantially more than an idle dream.
Montreal’s Île Ste-Hélène is scheduled to be the North American test site this year for Bombardier Inc.’s Primove pilot project, a technology that is being tested at four sites in Germany, where the firm’s rail division is based.
Primove’s mandate is to develop electric mass-transit propulsion systems, but not the vehicles themselves.
Intended to bypass the conventional notion of electric buses and trolley buses powered by cumbersome batteries, Primove rests on an inductive transfer of power from ground-based electrical power sources to very small batteries placed under, not in, the bus.
Sensors on the vehicles would store the energy emitted by the electro-magnetic field, but only in small quantities, feeding the bus or trolley sufficiently to reach the next power source a short distance away.
The system can charge while the vehicle is in motion or at rest.
“You bury power stations capable of charging rapidly, even instantly — we’re talking seconds — so that you don’t need to resort to (lengthier) conventional power boost systems currently on the market” like hybrid and electric vehicles, said a Bombardier Transportation spokesman, Marc Laforge.
Burying the infrastructure underground eliminates not only long battery-recharging sessions but also the visual pollution of vast meshings of overhead cables that tramway catenaries and pantographs require, he added.
“It’s kind of the opposite principle — (Primove is designed to) store the energy source out of sight,” Laforge said.
To get there, though, Bombardier will need three partners; bus manufacturers, Hydro-Québec and mass transit agencies.
“The beauty of this project,” Laforge said, “is that the most interested party in North America is in Canada, in fact Montreal and the Société de transport de Montréal. For us at Bombardier, that’s perfect.”
But the STM’s enthusiasm was tempered.
“Yes, absolutely there are discussions between us and Bombardier, but it’s very preliminary,” said a spokeswoman, Isabelle Tremblay.
“There’s a general interest on our part concerning, in particular, rapid charging. But it’s at the exploratory stage right now and our focus is on our long-term goal of buying only electric vehicles by 2025, whatever form that may take.”
“Bombardier is working on induction technology, which may be great, but we’re looking at everything available on the market, including a Chinese electriccharge technology that works very well.”
Tremblay said the companies were at the talking stage only. “There is no budget dedicated to this, no deadline. On the other hand, we’re listening and we’re interested.”
Laforge said that “if all goes well, we should do this pilot project this year on Île-Ste-Hélène,” and that Bombardier has approached Hydro-Québec and various bus manufacturers, including Quebec’s Nova Bus, which supplies the STM exclusively. The St-Eustache bus maker is selling 1,688 hybrid buses to the STM and Quebec’s eight other public transport agencies.
Gilles Dion, president and CEO of Nova Bus, said that he has discussed the Primove project with Bombar- dier “frequently for the last year or two.”
“It’s a fantastic initiative on Bombardier’s part, and I think there’s great potential for it.”
“We’re working to see how we could turn this trial technology into electric vehicles.”
“Are we going to be able to conduct tests this year? If not, it will be by next spring.”
But Dion noted that politics will play a role in its implementation.
Bombardier and Nova Bus had received financial commitments for the project after lengthy talks with the previous Liberal government led by Jean Charest. But discussions must now be restarted under Pauline Marois’s Parti Québecois government to make sure the commitments conform to its policies and goals.
“I’m assuming that the (undisclosed) sums earmarked for this project will still be available, but everyone has to be on the same page once again, including Hydro-Québec, which will supply the electric system.”
Hydro-Québec spokesperson Mathieu Rouy confirmed the utility has held some preliminary meetings with Bombardier and the STM to discuss the project, but said he could not comment further until the new government officially announces its policy for electric vehicles.
Between 2011 and 2020, Rouy said in an email, the Charest government had set aside “five envelopes of $100,000 each attributed by Hydro-Québec to projects linked to the electrification of transportation modes. To date, only one envelope has been attributed (to Laval).”
“As we speak, this program is maintained by the current government, so there remain four envelopes of $100,000 to be attributed.”
Bombardier’s Jérémie Desjardins, who heads the Primove project in Europe, told sources there that the technology has huge implications for Bombardier. If successful, it could lead to commercialization in related automotive fields, including cars and trucks.
But Bombardier’s success in non-rail mass vehicles has been mitigated in recent years in Europe.
Two French cities, for instance, Caen and Nancy, scrapped their Bombardier-provided tramways that suffered much high-er than normal rates of breakdowns and failures after only a few years — three decades before their anticipated retirement.
But Dion said that the Primove technology is “very, very, very promising.”
“That’s why we’re all looking at it so closely.”