Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 2

The Province of Manitoba, Manitoba Hydro and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) are contributing $3M to the development, demonstration and testing (especially in extreme winter conditions) of a prototype electric battery bus, over a three-year period. Additional consortium partners include Red River College (who are not only administering the project funding, but are also engaged in charging infrastructure development and demonstration/testing technical support) and New Flyer Industries (engineering design and prototype development lead). New Flyer Industries (NFI) has recently led the development of a Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) proposal engaging the same consortium partners, as well as Winnipeg Transit, to conduct a multi-year small fleet test in Winnipeg which will require the development of four additional electric battery bus prototypes. SDTC has awarded $3.4M to support the small fleet demonstration. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan, who is providing lithium ion battery packs for two of the new electric battery bus prototypes, has engaged Red River College in an applied research project to assist in integration of their battery packs into the New Flyer Industries' Xcelsior bus model platform. RRC instructors, staff and students will lead related design, analysis, prototyping, testing, monitoring and trouble shooting activities concerning the changes required to enable battery pack integration. These developments will enable the buses to be deployed for longer cycles and will reduce battery recycling requirements. This is a complex conversion as the development and placement of the battery packs also has system management implications. The results of this project will be incorporated in the MHI lithium battery packs which will be used by NFI in their Xcelsior buses. New Flyer Industries, which is Canada's largest transit bus manufacturer, will be the Canadian end user recipient of the applied research results.