Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has installed a substantial charging network for a fleet of 100 all-electric buses. The vehicles, which will be in operation around the clock, will travel on six lines around the airport, and are supported by 109 Heliox fast chargers.
“Schiphol is about more than just airplanes. It is one of the biggest public transportation hubs in the Netherlands,” says Miriam Hoekstra-van der Deen, director of airport operations at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. “It is fantastic that from today, thousands of passengers, commuters and employees will be taking green buses from and to Schiphol. Schiphol Airport has helped drive this project forward with great enthusiasm and we are very happy that we have been able to contribute to it. Ultimately, we want Schiphol to be climate-neutral by 2040. This partnership with Connexxion and the Transport Region is a huge step toward this goal.”
This project is the first of its kind, with installation at multiple sites taking place simultaneously.
In total, 23 Heliox OC 450kW chargers have been placed in four strategic charging points, and are capable of recharging the vehicle battery in between two and four minutes. These chargers are compatible with roof-mounted systems. In addition, Heliox opportunity chargers offer charging en-route, and recharging as passengers board and exit the buses. The roof-mounted system has proven to be reliable and robust, and uses a pantograph mounted on the bus, including remote management to ensure high uptime throughout the operation. Overnight charging, using 84 Heliox Fast DC dual 30kW chargers, can be performed at depots in Amsterdam and Amstelveen.
Heliox’s fast chargers can communicate and connect with whichever OCPP 1.6 back-office system that is preferred by the customer. This flexibility provides the customer with greater control over the infrastructure network, minimizing downtime.
The 100 all-electric VDL Citea buses are expected to drive a combined distance of 30,000km per day.
“Over the past year, we have taken major steps to further strengthen our position as a transition partner to e-mobility,” says Ard Romers, director VDL Bus & Coach Netherlands. “Our collaboration with Heliox has been a success, and we have gathered a lot of know-how from various zero-emission bus transportation projects where maximum availability has been guaranteed to the total system, and of the implementations and modeling of the different systems. Thanks to these experiences, we have now also succeeded in contributing to the successful transition within the Amstelland-Meerlanden concession. Heliox has been a reliable and a flexible partner to work on such a large-scale project. A major step has been taken in this region in making public transport more sustainable.”
“The Amsterdam airport area is crowded with heavy traffic moving thousands of passengers every day,” adds Mark Smidt, director of business development at Heliox. “When we started working on this large-scale implementation, we understood the impact this project would have on the Schiphol Airport area, so we are excited to see how the community will appreciate the benefits of e-mobility through using e-buses every day. This project truly is a great example how Heliox’s technology is more than capable of supporting large-scale global projects. We are proud to be working with Transdev/Connexxion and our other partners to push the limits of e-mobility even further.”
