120 Electric Buses: Not One Less
Every morning, in the electric bus support base located in Pudong Expo Site, members of the SAIC Sun-Win New Energy Passenger Vehicle Operation support Team will be busy with the “physical examination” of the totally 120 pure electric buses in terms of light, air-conditioner, cell and electric cabinet, from inside to outside, with no minute detail to be neglected.

“When sending off the buses every day, we won’t feel relieved until all buses have driven out of the support base,” said Sun Keliang, Head of the Pure Electric Bus Operation Support Division. “If the 120-pure-electric-bus fleet runs with a single bus missing, the tourists would probably suffer from longer waiting under the burning sunshine and the running buses would get even more crowded.”

 “Not one less”—that’s the working target and requirement of the Support Division. Given the fact that these 120 buses independent of gas will carry over 400,000 passengers on average per day, which are times of the capacity of ordinary buses. Even the ordinary buses would be exhausted under such workload, let alone those pure electric buses that are rare all over the world. In order to fulfill the commitment of safe and stable operations for up to 184 days, the SAIC New Energy Vehicle R&D, Maintenance and Support Divisions dedicate all their efforts without taking a moment for relaxation. 

Never Overlook a Minute Problem:

The other day, the Warranty Service Center’s telephone rang hurriedly: “Master Wu, come and take a look. How on earth should the bus go reversely when I step on the electric switch by the stop?” Wu Hongwei, the 58-year-old Head of Warranty Service Center of the Support Division was pretty worried on hearing of the message. This is a problem that has never been encountered before. Should there be anything wrong with the electric control system? Why it was not disclosed in operations in the last 2 months?

 Wu rushed to the bus stop for an on-site investigation. He sat down next to the driver, observing closely the driver’s operating procedures. Then he got off the bus and squatted down on watching how the bus goes reversely. Three times back and forth, Wu got the picture in his mind. “There’s nothing wrong with the vehicle. It’s caused by driver’s habit and terrain by the bus stop.” 

Compared with the accelerators of traditional buses, the electric switches of part of the new buses would react a bit sluggishly, which would become even more apparent when the bus is fully loaded. Given the facts of large passenger flow, heavy load and high dispatching frequency along the bus stops in the Expo Site, some road surfaces have sunk a little bit. If a bus happens to stop on the little slope and the starting signal triggers a bit sluggishly, the bus would go reversely.

With the trouble located, Wu Hongwei immediately improved the drivers’ operating procedures to stop bus by bus stops and step on the electric switches. They are now advised to pull up the hand brake as much as possible when the bus has stopped; On start up, they should first of all step on the electric switch and then loosen slowly the hand brake. By doing so, no going reversely would appear any more.

Never Tired of Training

 Of those problems with the new energy vehicles, some are due to the drivers who have not yet got themselves familiarized with the characteristics of the new energy vehicles and some are related with the special operating environment of the Expo. Therefore, strengthened trainings are deemed to be of the utmost significance.

For instance, in terms of the driver operation training, Wu Hongwei and his colleagues offered three additional rounds of training on the basis of the all-staff training in rotation program. As early as in February this year, they worked together with the drivers everyday driving the new energy buses loaded with the sand bags with the air-conditioning on for the comprehensive “simulation operation”. In June, when the Expo had been going on for a period of time, further trainings were offered focusing on some minor troubles as incurred by the driving habits. It took altogether 20 days by tracking one bus after another and accompanying one driver after another to get all these minor troubles resolved. Last month, the conclusions were drawn about the reported breakdowns ever since the opening of the Expo Site. Once more, a concentrated training program was arranged against the particular individual drivers, buses and plate numbers for some 24 drivers who had frequent minor breakdowns with great patience just in order to offer the Expo tourists safer and more comfortable travels by bus.

“These drivers are the carefully chosen masters. However, it takes time to get themselves familiarized as they are to drive the new energy vehicles,” says Wu Hongwei. Only when you have taken sufficient running-in, can you expect to drive a new energy vehicle well and stably enough, incur little or no breakdown and then to satisfy your passengers. According to the statistics from the Pure Electric Bus Support Division, during the trial runs at the end of April, there were over ten breakdowns reported everyday.
 
No Relaxation in Sweating Days

The hot summer days mean a huge challenge to the electric vehicles because the cells fear high temperature the most.

Chen Ming, Panel Head and Vice Director of  Pure Electric Bus Operation Support Division, SAIC, has been staying in a makeshift house at the support base staring at the operation data of the 120 electric buses without venturing on a single moment of negligence. “The temperature has approached 40 degrees centigrade recently and the ground temperature hit 62 degrees centigrade, which caused me a bit concern,” Chen told the journalist.

 To fight against high temperature, the SAIC people have been sufficiently prepared. Each electric bus is equipped with a cell management system, which will help monitor from time to time such indicators as the vehicle temperature, current and voltage etc. The data will be transmitted back to the Monitoring Center. The cell management system will alarm automatically when a certain cell’s temperature exceeds 55 degrees centigrade, in which case the cell power will drop down to maintain the vehicle running at a speed of 40 km/h maximum. Thanks to the buffering time, the cell’s excessive heat will be released gradually.

  Some day in July, an electric bus was found to be smoking due to the cell’s high temperature in the afternoon. Pretty soon, Qin Chao, the Head of SAIC Pure Electric Bus R&D Team and the technicians of the Operation Support Team rushed to the site. Despite the hot weather, they worked from the afternoon till midnight and eventually located where the trouble lied. It was due to the exhausted working personnel who wrongly connected the positive and negative poles when replacing the cell, which broke down and smoked as under the soaring temperature. No more such negligence should be tolerated. Even stricter system is forthwith worked out by both the support base and other relevant organizations to ensure cell replacement without the least deviation.

In order to fulfill the commitment of “not one less”, the SAIC service support team members stick to their posts. Wang Linchang, a member of the pure electric bus technical support team, was unable to accompany his mother who was critically ill; Chen Ming from the Sun Win Company couldn’t afford the time to assist his daughter to review lessons for the upcoming college entrance examination this year; Shen Hong, head of the installation and commissioning team, went on working in spite of his ill health and couldn’t afford the time to distribute the wedding banquet invitations for his son who was to get married……

Thanks to the caring escort of SAIC Expo Support Team, the new energy vehicles that fear high temperature and humidity have turned out to be the iron-hard figures having survived such operation challenges as large passenger flow, high intensity and high frequency and left behind quite a few new records of exemplary operation.

 
——Excerpts from Jiefang Daily   August 28, 2010