I’m always intrigued by eco-friendly inventions that look like they’d be more at home on a sketch pad actually come to fruition. Travel and transportation ideas remain at the forefront of environmentally research as experts realise that our need to travel isn’t likely to end but we have to find new pollution free methods to do so. High speed transportation between two cities in fairly close proximity to each other (let’s say 500km / 310 miles) is usually the domain of private car, airliner or passenger rail but a new high speed ecobus might provide an alternative in the near future.

While it’s called a ‘bus’ it looks to me far more like a sporty stretch limousine to me, but this monster is 100% electric. The ‘Superbus Project’ is Dutch and a working prototype is already being tested with trials scheduled next month in the U.A.E. who have shown a keen interest in the idea. Trial runs between Abu Dhabi and Dubai will hopefully cement a commitment to bringing the project to the end market. The concept is very cool, the sleek bus will be fully equipped for luxury business class travel and able to seat up to 23 passengers as it whisks them between cities at speeds of up to 250 kmh / 155 mph which is faster than many rail links. Of course the bus wouldn’t be able to share conventional highway space at the speed and the idea includes construction of a concrete track from city to city where the bus would complete the bulk of the journey.

The bus looks like an extended sports vehicle with an overall length of 15 metres and 8 doors on each side to allow for easy access for all pasengers. It would be powered by a fully rechargeable Li-Lon batteries which would power a 300 kW electric motor. The entire construction and chassis would feature lightweight alloys and plastics and environmental considerations that eliminate any emissions post construction. The designers feel that the flexibility the service could offer with no set schedules or logistics compared with rail or planes could see it capture the business market, perhaps as importantly they expect that fares to use the bus will be comparable to the alternatives now available.

The project began in 2004 and if tests with the prototypes are met with positive response its anticipated that the implementation of regular service can begin as early as 2015. I’d love to see such a progressive option succeed and I hope the huge costs of infrastructure for tracks and tunnels as depicted on their video (below) won’t see the project fail to make inroads.

You can learn much more at the official site for the project.

Please enter the url to a YouTube video.

Watch the Superbus video