Frieda Margarethe Davey has been working at Daimler Buses in Mannheim (Germany) as a product development engineer since 2016. She is responsible for the development of the high-voltage battery for the electric city bus from Mercedes-Benz. In 2015 she received her MSc in Material Science and Engineering at the Technical University of Delft (the Netherlands). Previously to that she gained her BSc in Industrial Engineering at the University of Trieste (Italy).
Lecture: Developing the battery for an electric city bus
The wave of electro-mobility is perhaps one of the biggest game-changers in the history of road transportation after the invention of the engine. Electro-mobility does not only involve passenger cars but is currently strongly shaping and influencing the world of public transportation, in particular city buses. New laws to reduce CO2 emissions within cities are also strongly pushing for a zero-emission bus network. Converting city transportation to electric buses poses many challenges and obliges us to completely re-think the operation of public transportation within the city. One of the key components of a fully electric city bus is the high-voltage battery that takes over the role of the “old” diesel engine: propulsion of the vehicle. The high voltage battery is an extremely intricate component that needs to be developed bearing in mind chemistry, software, battery aging, charging power, integration in the vehicle, safety, durability and operational management amongst others. Daimler Buses is tackling these questions and currently producing its first generation of electric drive buses. In this lecture the engineering development of the last years, the current status and the future battery perspective will be presented.