Modular AutoTram concept as flexible as a bus

The AutoTram is a new streetcar concept from the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI in Dresden, Germany which combines the flexibility of bus transport, needing no rails or overhead power lines, with the passenger carrying capacity of trams. This makes the system between 30 and 50 percent cheaper than conventional railway systems.

At up to 36 meters / 118 feet long, the AutoTram can be operated as a single bus on low passenger routes, or assembled to form a uni-directional or bi-directional high-capacity vehicle. An active multiple-axle steering system with integrated guidance ensures the AutoTram can manoeuvre around tight city streets with sharp bends.

Propelling the AutoTram is an innovative hybrid drive concept that draws is power from a 180kW / 240hp diesel engine linked to a flywheel energy storage system. In the same fashion that typical petrol-electric hybrids use regenerative breaking to recharge on-board batteries, the flywheel energy storage system using breaking energy to spin a flywheel whose momentum can later be harnessed to provide positive movement. This allows the AutoTram to travel short distances, up to two kilometers /1.2 miles, completely without noise or emissions.

[Source: HybridCarNews]