Seattle will be the first city in America to deploy double-decker electric buses with inductive wireless charging technology.
Seattle’s Sound Transit transportation agency has ordered 33 double-decker British Alexander Dennis Enviro500EV electric buses and 15 articulated 18-meter electric buses. Passenger cars will be powered by 13 ground-based inductive chargers with a capacity of 300 kW.
The power stations will be supplied by InductEV, a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of wireless chargers for electric vehicles.
The double-decker buses will be equipped with a Voith electric drive system and increased energy storage capacity. Their delivery is scheduled for 2026. Alexander Dennis’s British partner, Big Rig Manufacturing, will manufacture these passenger vehicles in the United States.
The electric buses will serve Sound Transit’s new Stride light rail line. It is being built along Interstate 405 to connect areas north, east, and south of Lake Washington. Sound Transit will charge its buses on the route and at the depot, as almost half of the electricity in the Puget Sound region is generated from renewable sources.
The InductEV technology is currently in use, scheduled to be deployed in approximately 100 electric buses across Washington State, along with 35 InductEV ground-based wireless charging panels.
