A streetcar that recharges itself during breaking, eliminates the overhead wires commonly found on modern streetcars. This technology could improve and eliminate some barriers from streetcar’s in modern city public transportation.
The Railway Technical Research Institute in Kokubunji, Tokyo, has developed a streetcar powered by a lithium battery that can recharge in under a minute. The institute will start conducting test runs in Sapporo at the end of November to check the streetcar’s capacity. Powered by the onboard battery, the vehicle runs at a maximum speed of 40 kph for 15 kilometers and is capable of converting 70 percent of its deceleration energy into electricity, which it sends back to the battery. The rest of the power is supplied by recharging stations, where the streetcar connects its pantograph to overhead wires.