MCI to help operators empower zero emissions green goals with battery electric J4500e, installation of its first HVC charger in California
Motor Coach Industries (MCI), which begins its battery-electric rollout in the coming months, is marking Earth Day with an essential project — installation of its first heavy-duty vehicle charger at its San Francisco Bay Area MCI Service Center in Hayward, California.
The MCI Service Center at 4120 Point Eden Way serves some of the biggest public and private motorcoach markets in the country and is the kickoff point for MCI’s move into all-electric vehicles. The MCI J4500e CHARGE will bring zero emissions capability to the market, with deliveries planned later in 2020. And in 2021, MCI will begin deliveries of the battery-electric D45 CRTe LE CHARGE, featuring the revolutionary patented LE (Low Entry) vestibule with a seating area and ramp that significantly improves dwell times and the boarding and rider experience.
In Hayward, MCI is also unveiling its very first ABB HVC (high voltage charger) — it’s an 150c e-Bus charger with depot box converting 480 Volts AC (3-phase) fed from the service center to the charger, which converts it to 200 amps DC for either hybrid or electrical buses based on the CCS Charging Standard. The station is expected to be fully operational by June.
MCI plans to make its battery-electric J4500e first full production model available for demonstrations at the same time to the many companies running employee shuttles in the San Francisco Bay Area — as many already use J4500 clean-diesel powered coaches daily, transporting tech professionals to Silicon Valley.
Earth Day and MCI
The very first Earth Day was celebrated 50 years ago in the United States on April 22, 1970.
Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, an environmentalist, is credited for ushering in the grassroots environmental movement created to increase ecological awareness, leading to the July 1970 establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate and enforce national pollution legislation with an emphasis on reducing carbon emissions from America’s roads.
Since then, motorcoach bus travel has continued to rank as the most favorable mode of transportation for lowest emissions per passenger mile when compared to trains, planes and automobiles, as noted as far back as a 2008 NPR report, a 2014 meteorologist’s calculations from a Greyhound bus trip, and a more recent 2018 National Geographic feature article on the carbon foot print efficiency of all modes of transportation.
The industry has kept pace with the series of EPA-compliant clean-diesel engine emission improvements since 2007. Today’s more efficient, lightweight Cummins X12 engine and the MCI eFan system combine to deliver even greater fuel economy improvement and a new standard in low total cost of operation.
MCI and the Highway to Electric
MCI’s battery electric platform includes electric-driven components throughout, from electric heat and AC systems to power steering. It features a high-torque Siemens electric drive train and energy storage system (ESS) based on the 63 Ah lithium ion (NMC) ultra-high energy cell by XALT for an estimated 544 kWh of on-board energy for the J4500e, with recharging in under four hours, and 388.5 kWh for the D45 CRTe LE, enabling high-power plug-in battery recharging in under three hours. The J4500e boasts a range well over 200 miles, with regenerative braking for energy efficiency and solid stopping power in extensive field tests.
MCI’s all-electric move is also supported by sister company’s New Flyer Infrastructure Solutions™, a full suite of services that help plan deployment of fast-charging stations by route specifications to meet each customer’s need.