Electric mobility in size XL

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Tags: Emobility

Electric buses significantly reduce emissions in inner cities, increasing quality of life. With its electric portal axle AxTrax AVE, ZF is making a major contribution to environmental protection. A video gives viewers a look at the production of this axle.

Frank Thoma, December 11, 2018

Frank Thoma has been corporate editor at ZF since 2011. With a degree in journalism, he has been writing and editing articles for all of the company’s internal, external print and online media.

Urban traffic worldwide is growing, leading to increasing emissions in cities. Public transport providers are reacting to this – and to pressure from legislators – by buying more and more city buses with locally emission-free electric drives.

With the AxTrax AVE (formerly AVE 130) ZF has been supplying an electric portal axle for buses in series production since 2017. The key features of the exceptionally lightweight (1,220 kg) driven axle are the two electric motors integrated in the wheel heads. Each of them packs a power of 125 kW (170 HP). What's more, the electric portal axle is suitable for a wide range of energy supply concepts: batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors or overhead contact lines. In articulated buses, it's even possible to install two AxTRAX AVEs, at the rear and in the center. This means the vehicles can easily manage urban routes with steep uphill gradients.

Today, various bus manufacturers worldwide use the AxTrax AVE, and the trend is upward. For instance Daimler chose the high-power electric portal axle from ZF for its Mercedes-Benz eCitaro. The first eCitaros are already on the road in Hamburg.

Join us and take a look at production of the AxTrax AVE electric portal axle.

Technology

Electric mobility in size XL