The demonstrator is a based on a standard three-car Talent 3 regional EMU, which has been equipped with the company’s Mitrac battery system, a heavy-rail development of the Primove technology designed for bus and light rail applications.
The train draws charge exclusively from the 15kV 16.7Hz ac overhead electrification via the pantograph, with a cycle time of 7-10 minutes for a full 1MW charge. The train will have a maximum speed of 160km/h under the wires and 140km/h in catenary-free operation.
The Technical University of Berlin is providing scientific and technical support for the project, including an operational concept for the demonstrator train. Associate partners in the project include train operator DB Regio Alb-Bodensee, Germany’s National Organisation for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology, and Baden-Württemberg state transport authority NVBW.
Development work began on the Talent 3 battery train in September 2016 and the design of the demonstrator train was frozen in March 2018. Following authorisation for passenger operation, the train will operate commercially with DB Regio Alb-Bodensee for a year from mid-2019.
A detailed description of the battery-electric Talent 3 features in the September issue of IRJ, which is available free-of-charge from the IRJ stand at InnoTrans (Hall 6.2 Stand 101).
