Iveco Ellisup

The Iveco Ellisup is a prototype electric urban bus presented in October 2013 at the Busworld Kortrijk show by Iveco Bus, the bus division of the Iveco group, formerly Irisbus. The project, whose name stands for a bus with lithium batteries and supercapacitors, was selected in 2009 by the demonstrator fund of the French agency Ademe, and Iveco Bus ran it with French partners including Michelin, EDF, the RATP and the CEA. The aim was an electric bus that recharges quickly at the end of its line. According to Iveco Bus, the operating and ownership costs were estimated to fall between those of an ordinary diesel bus and those of a trolleybus. The French Wikipedia article says Iveco gave no detailed specification, but the Ellisup appeared to use electric motors developed with Michelin and housed in four of its eight small wheels, which limits the space the motors take and leaves a roomier interior. The motors were to be fed by a combination of batteries and supercapacitors, and the bus could recharge at line termini through a pantograph on the front, reportedly in four minutes for eight to ten kilometres of range, a claim the article marks as needing a citation. The interior was to include wifi, automatic pedestrian detection, panoramic windows and variable lighting. No series model was planned.