Tech

EV coach drives from California to Seattle and back using public chargers

The Van Hool CX45E that completed the 1,700-mile round trip.

Enlarge / The Van Hool CX45E that completed the 1, 700-mile round trip. (credit: ABC Companies)

An electric coach just completed a 1, 700-mile (2, 743-km) trip from Newark, California, to Seattle and back. The journey was a demonstration of battery-electric transport and was organized by the coach operator MTRWestern and ABC Companies, the US importer for Van Hool coaches.

What makes this trip noteworthy—some might even say amazing—is that will it relied on public fast chargers. The coach averaged 280 miles (450 km) between charging stops, with some stretches of over 300 miles (482 km).

The coach in question is a Van Hool CX45E and uses a Proterra battery pack similar to the one that powered a Proterra bus that completed a 1, 101-mile (1, 772-km) journey on the single charge in 2017. Van Hool picked Proterra as its battery supplier later that year.

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