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Big shoutout to Suhaas307 for shooting these pictures & his coverage of the Auto Expo. Thanks for sharing!

Ashok Leyland Circuit-S Bus




Highlights:

• Ashok Leyland in collaboration with Sun Mobility (Chetan Maini is the co-founder), is all set to introduce the Circuit-S Bus.

• A typical electric bus takes about 1-2 hours to fast charge, or 8 hours to regular charge. That's a lot of downtime for a commercial vehicle.

• Note that this is the Circuit-S, as opposed to the Circuit that was launched in 2016. The "S" implies Swappable battery.

• The Circuit-S bus has a removable battery that can be automatically swapped out for a freshly charged one in less than 4 minutes.

• Each battery pack is about 1/4th the weight (improving efficiency) and smaller (freeing up passenger space) than a typical bus battery.

• The reduction in battery size & weight is due to the fact that it is a lower capacity battery, that gets swapped out frequently. The range of each battery pack is 50 km.

• Ashok Leyland will sell these buses without the battery included - which makes the upfront cost of the Circuit-S bus equivalent to that of a regular diesel bus.

• The bus operators then use the swappable batteries on a pay-per-use basis.

• A network of Quick Interchange Stations will be set up to facilitate the swapping, charging and maintenance of battery packs.

• By setting up 30 Quick Interchange Stations at existing bus depots in Bangalore, Ashok Leyland claims they can cover 85% of the bus routes.

4 steps up to the seating area, this is not a low-floor bus:


The Circuit-S bus ranges from 9m to 12m / 25 to 35 seats. The battery pack is visible from inside the bus (through the window at floor level):


Note the P/R/N/D push-button gear selector:


You can see the swappable battery peeking through the lower window from the outside too:


Though not pictured here, the bus is fitted with a fire detection and suppression system:


On the right is the mechanism for the Quick Interchange Station:


Note the box at the end which houses the mechanism to lock onto the battery:


The arm telescopes all the way into the bus' battery bay:


It locks onto the discharged battery pack and pulls it out:


Even though this is considered a "small" battery by bus standards, it's still huge!


On the other end of the battery you can see the large electrical connectors (heavy amperage!):


The battery gets rotated around…


…and taken along to the charging dock:


Additional specifications:

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