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The story
Toshiba and partners have launched a trial of an EV bus that charges from above via a pantograph, just like a train. The system reportedly lets the driver complete a roughly 10-minute fast charge with a single button press, without ever leaving the bus, and media reports have billed it as “Japan’s first” pantograph-style charging. On 5ch, some pointed out that old trolleybuses worked on the same basic principle, while others questioned the “Japan’s first” claim, noting that the Kurobe Dam’s Kansai Electric Power Tunnel electric buses already use similar overhead-wire charging. Commenters also debated why the charging got so much faster and how durable — and costly to maintain — the pantograph unit would be.
A trial has begun for an EV bus that can be charged in about 10 minutes.
Toshiba and partners held a launch ceremony for Japan’s first EV bus capable of ultra-fast charging via a pantograph.
With the train-style pantograph system, charging happens from above the vehicle, and the driver can finish charging with a single button press without ever stepping off the bus.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
If all we're doing is going back to the Showa era (mid-20th-century Japan), sure, that's easy enough.
This (´・ω・｀)
All I can picture is it misaligning and short-circuiting.
Feels like someone's gonna forget to undock it and snap it right off.
Well, I guess they just need to make sure it can't move until it's undocked.
There's no overhead wire along the route though.
Isn't this the Kurobe Dam EV bus overhead-wire charging? I thought they kept the trolley wires at the stops and charged there.
Isn't this the Kurobe Dam EV bus overhead-wire charging? I thought they kept the trolley wires at the stops and charged there.
This should be easy to install, and it could even work for long-haul freight trucks.
That still doesn't explain how 4 hours becomes 10 minutes though.
The way it's written makes the whole thing sound sketchy.
At the end of the day it's just an outdated technology that lost the market battle to gasoline cars 100 years ago.
Yeah, true.
Shut down the nuclear plants.
The outer loop line was handy.
There's no loop bus service at all anymore though.
If they can speed up charging that much, a regular plug socket would be fine.
Well, I guess since it's a bus — which is a special case — they figured a pantograph would let passengers stay aboard while it charges.
But infrastructure should really be built around whatever ends up becoming the standard.
It's high voltage and high current, so a conventional plug like that just wouldn't hold up.
EVs themselves are garbage, so China pouring money into them is dumb — and so is Japan.
Today on a mountain road there was an old man whose clutch had broken, and when I lent him my phone he gave me 1,000 yen.
I told him 100 yen would be enough since my plan is with POVO (a cheap Japanese mobile carrier).
Japan isn't really spending much money on this at all, because everyone knows current batteries are total garbage lol.
Just calculate the energy density of fossil fuels and you'll see (lol) — per unit volume it's orders of magnitude higher than batteries. Like two orders of magnitude lol
There's actually something called a flywheel battery, you know.
Is there any plan to cover those maintenance costs?
With trains it's constantly rubbing against the wire, which limits material choice and causes wear, but for something like this that's only used while parked at a stop, wear is barely a concern, so you get more freedom in material choice and the cost should be very low.
The real barrier to adoption is probably the expensive battery.
They've reportedly been trialing this in Malaysia for 10 years already.
If anything, this is late.
isn't the key here being able to push a large current, combined with shrinking the battery capacity and charging more frequently?
current would run down the side to the ground like a lightning strike.
I wonder if they cover the roof with insulation.
Is the idea that the pantograph lowers down from the charging unit on the depot side?
Isn't it more like the usual setup, where the pantograph extends upward from the bus roof?
There's no way something like this could be installed at a station-front bus stop anyway.
Exactly this.
Pointless research.
The idea is that by making charging easy, you can charge more often.
After all, a driver can't be expected to go outside and plug it in on a rainy day.
There's still the issue of what happens when it needs to be driven a medium-to-long distance for a vehicle inspection or similar…
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union just put a big roof over the terminal bus stop lol
— something like that.
Don't the Kansai Electric Power Tunnel electric buses already fast-charge via pantograph?
Background and Points of Debate
Pantograph-style charging repurposes the same high-current, high-voltage power delivery used by trains. Unlike trolleybuses, which need permanent overhead wires, this system reportedly connects only when needed, to a charging unit installed at a stop or similar location. Opinions on the thread split mainly along three lines. ① Why charging is so much faster — is it simply a matter of higher current, or a design choice to use a smaller onboard battery that’s charged more frequently? ② Whether wear and maintenance costs around the pantograph unit will become a real practical burden. ③ Whether the “Japan’s first” label holds up — some pointed out that the Kurobe Dam’s Kansai Electric Power Tunnel electric buses already use a similar overhead-wire charging system, though the article alone can’t settle whether there were genuine earlier precedents. The original article doesn’t offer a detailed comparison of charging methods or prior examples, so whether the thread’s claims are accurate is something that will have to wait on further reporting.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Research] EV Bus Charges in 10 Minutes — Japan’s First Pantograph-Style Trial.”
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