Texas Border Business
MCALLEN, TX – The City of McAllen announces the implementation of its Electric Bus Project. In a partnership with Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification (WAVE) and Complete Coach Works (CCW), the City of McAllen has completed a project to install WAVE technology on two buses that include an all-electric, Zero-Emission Propulsion System (ZEPS) provided by CCW.
WAVE technology transfers power through the air, from an embedded charging pad placed in the pavement to a receiving pad mounted on the vehicle’s undercarriage seven to eight inches above, minimizing the need for on-board power storage.
“We are excited to have reached this stage of the project, as it will provide great benefits to our Transit System. Along with the anticipated cost savings, and the environmental impact this project will have, the inductive charging while on route makes it convenient for our operations,” said McAllen Transit Director Mario Delgado. “We will be able to complete one full day as a result of the inductive charging, so it makes sense operationally. We will give our bus the range it needs during a whole day without disturbing our service. The WAVE in-route charging roughly doubles the range of the bus on a given day.”
“CCW is happy to have worked with such a great company like Metro McAllen. We are excited to be a part of McAllen’s transition towards a greener fleet,” says Dale Carson, President of CCW.
“When we work on quality of life issues, there’s just no other entity in the region that competes against us and that is because the people that have been here before us have always known how important quality of life is to the City of McAllen, said City manager Roel “Roy” Rodriguez, P.E.
An embedded charging pad has been placed in the roadway at one of the McAllen stops so that the bus route will be unchanged. The embedded pads will measure about three feet square. The pads are flat and seamlessly blend with the asphalt, allowing any vehicle to driver over it and causing no harm to anyone that passes over it.
“The bus will arrive over the charging pad every hour, during the standard layover of about 10-15 minutes so that the bus can charge, causing no disruption to the route,” said Delgado.
WAVE’s WPT technology is the world’s most powerful and efficient single pad wireless charging system ever deployed by a U.S. company for mass transit. WAVE is currently working on development of a higher power product to add to its portfolio of product offerings and focused on deploying projects with 4 additional transit agencies. “We have developed a fantastic relationship with McAllen Transit, who has confirmed that our in-route charging truly extends range to enable daily route completion and the product just works, ”
says Micheal Masquelier, Chief Executive Officer of WAVE.
