OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 1/2018

108 The ”Catalyst” is a success story of Adam Fowl- kes’ engineering team as well as of the whole Proterra team! The electrical engineering manager played a central role in development, construction and testing of the 12-metre long electric bus. The result is a success. Today, the “Proterra Catalyst Platform”, which comes in two sizes, is one of the most flexible electric vehicles used for public transport in North America. The “Catalyst” can be configured precisely according to the wishes of the cus- tomer and the special aspects of a bus route. For example, the battery power can be altered and the bus can be charged in the depot or at stations along the route. Moreover, the “Cata- lyst” can be adapted to needs in the course of its useful life: the battery pack can be upgrad- ed, for example. Robust technology for the road Adam Fowlkes and his colleague Joshua Stewart, engineering manager at Proterra’s facility in Greenville, South Carolina, are convinced that the “Catalyst” is one of the best electric buses in the world. “We are talk- ing about a product with superior status. In all parts of the vehicle, we therefore use the More and more electric buses on American roads In the USA, Proterra builds new vehicles instead of modifying old ones / Lenze MOBILE system ensures efficiency By Jonas Schuster, Lenze Schmidhauser Electric buses are beginning to conquer the roads in the United States. Although there are not yet very many compared to diesel and gas-powered buses, there is a very good chance that their numbers will increase, according to many experts in this sector. The manufacturer Proterra is one of the pioneers in this segment of electro-mobility. Fully charged in just ten short minutes, the e-buses with their sophisticated charging-management system and efficient use of stored electrical energy are causing a sensation. For the drive of auxiliary units, Proterra uses double inverters from Lenze‘s MOBILE system which are specially designed for mobile use. eMobility Images: © Lenze Schmidhauser In the USA, Proterra builds new vehicles instead of modifying old ones.