EnergyBus was a major topic at LEV Conference in Taipei and Workshops Hsinchu, Taiwan, from March 15-19, 2008. Topics were the current status of EnergyBus, cooperation projects, ways of application, and technical know-how.
EnergyBus e.V. organization was founded in Taiwan in March 2007 to coordinate the development and market introduction of EnergyBus standard. Members are industry players who take over an active role in the definition of the EnergyBus specifications according to their own needs. The organization is based in Tanna, Germany.
During the past year industry representatives got together in a number of workshops in Germany and Taiwan to work out the technical requirements of the EnergyBus plug family, protocol, and energy management. For the protocol, CAN was chosen as a standard and EnergyBus organization joint forces with CAN in Automation e.V. of Germany.
EnergyBus Projects
For 2008 and the following years, a number of events and EnergyBus cooperation projects are underway.
One major project is a battery-leasing scheme in cooperation with the city of Stuttgart in Germany. Stuttgart’s Mayor Dr. Wolfgang Schuster heavily supports the plan to sell pedelecs and electric scooters from different manufacturers to the inhabitants of Stuttgart on a 4-year contract basis. Charged batteries will be available from around 500 battery vending machines in the greater area of Stuttgart. Energy supplier EDF is highly interested in supporting such a battery-charging infrastructure in public locations. A prototype of a battery vending machine was presented at this year’s LEV Conference in Taipei. As the leader of UCLG (Urban Mobility Working Group), which represents 50% of the world population, Stuttgart is an internationally well-connected city, and intends to set a new trend with this pilot project.
Other EnergyBus cooperation projects include pedelec leasing service provided by E-Wheels electric bike company, and a dealer service provided by ETRA using maintenance tools based on EnergyBus.
Hsinchu Workshops
During the workshop days at the ITRI location in Hsinchu from March 17-19, 2008, EnergyBus and BATSO topics, battery charging stations, and rental systems were discussed. Working groups of EnergyBus worked out the requirements for EnergyBus plugs for products of different price categories as well as details of the energy management and CANopen specifications.
It was pointed out that the components of a light electric vehicle can be EnergyBus standardized step by step. EnergyBus can be implemented to connect battery and charger first, later battery and motor and other components.
Links
Report on LEVConference
Report on Stuttgart Project
Related websites
LEVConference.org
BATSO.org
Lectures
All lectures of LEV Conference are available for download at LEVConference.org.