Letenda

Letenda builds the Electrip, a 30-foot, fully electric, zero-emission city bus. The vehicle is meant for neighbourhood routes, airport shuttles and university shuttles, and its interior can be configured for regular transit, shuttle or on-demand service. The company presents it as a vehicle that combines the reliability and range of a full-size bus with the agility and operating cost of a compact vehicle. Its head office is in Longueuil.

To serve a low-ridership route, a transit agency chooses between two formats. The full-size bus brings range and reliability, at the cost of bulk in narrow streets and operating costs. The compact vehicle brings agility, without the same range. Winter adds its own constraint: snow tracked into the vehicle and the heating load weigh on passenger comfort and on the energy available.

The product

The team is designing a 30-foot, fully low-floor bus, for which the company announces a range of up to 362 km and a two-hour charge on a 150 kW DC charger. A radiant floor heats the cabin, melts the snow and dries the floor. All four wheels steer: at low speed, the rear wheels turn opposite to the front wheels, and the function turns off above a certain speed. A crab-walk mode is offered as an option for narrow garages. The chassis is designed to resist corrosion, and the company states that the vehicle is certified for North America. The transit agency decides the interior configuration, adaptable to the service it runs.

What it changes in practice

• A low-ridership route can be electrified without moving to a full-size vehicle, because the Electrip fits in 30 feet while announcing a range of up to 362 km.
• The vehicle travels narrow streets and manoeuvres in tight garages, because all four wheels steer and a crab-walk mode is offered as an option.
• The floor stays dry in winter, because a radiant floor melts the snow and dries it.

Mobility for all