Technology

Written by: Glen Hiemstra

By Dominic Thiffault

by Keith Barry

Wired

12.03.12

Say goodbye to catenary wires. Utah State University has unveiled an electric bus that charges through induction, topping off its batteries whenever it stops to pick up passengers.

The University of Utah has placed an order for a 40-foot, all-electric transit bus with BYD Company Limited (BYD), which will be the first shuttle to be allowed to run across the heart of campus.

If batteries did not weigh or cost so much, most drivers might be wheeling electric vehicles by now.  A new Utah State University technology could overcome this barrier to electrically powered transport. How? By transferring power through the air, from charging pads embedded in a road to a vehicle's undercarriage 10 inches above, minimizing the need for on-board power storage.  This fall a USU start-up company will test the economic viability of such as wireless power transfer, or WPT, in the shuttle bus system at the University of Utah. Fueled with a federal grant, the U.