Following my post on Al Gore’s thoughts on how the US needs to play capture the flag with China for electronic car supremacy, I was alerted to the SF Gate article Electric power-train firm eyes China’s buses by Earth2tech that highlights the efforts of Bay Area firm Adura to cooperate on electrifying China’s buses.
It is an example of what I believe is the right way for the US, and its firms to engage, and I wanted to quickly share it with you.
To cooperate:
With Adura’s power train, a bus can travel 100 miles between charges, Bush said. Hook up the power train to a hybrid engine, and a bus traveling 130 miles in a day can get fuel mileage of 50 miles per gallon.
Bush has no interest in building the buses himself. While other companies are trying to design entire electric vehicles, Adura has focused on just this one critical piece.
“We only do power trains,” Bush said. “We’re not going to do any body work. We’re not a car company.”
Only time will tell if the testing and development work, but if they do, and through this cooperation a bus with 100 mile.. 200 mile ranges can be commercialized, then I view that as a win for more than just Adura and their partners.
A mission that Adura makes clear on their site:
Adura’s MESA powertrain for bus manufacturers efficiently aligns business objectives – lower total acquisition cost, and lowest total operational costs.
It will be a win for cities looking for clean urban transportation options.