review

Editorial
Transportation
Bazmi Husain
Dear Reader,
The portion of the world’s population living
in cities is forecast to rise from 54 percent
in 2014 to 66 percent by 2050. The relent -
less growth of urban centers is bringing with
it numerous societal and environmental
challenges. Not least among these is that
of transportation. With both urban populations
and their affluence on the rise, more
and more vehicles are competing for limited
road space while contributing to pollution.
On a local level, emissions from vehicles can
have a detrimental impact on both human
health and quality of life. On a global level,
transportation contributes to about one
quarter of global anthropogenic emissions
of carbon dioxide. Governments are increasingly
recognizing these challenges and
implementing measures to make transportation
greener.
Besides pollution, transportation is also linked
to congestion. Further to its nuisance aspect,
congestion is an economic liability as people
spend time unproductively and the delivery of
goods is disrupted.
For example, ABB is also at the forefront
of the digitalization that enables assets and
systems to share data, perform more effectively
and be serviced and diagnosed remotely.
Further areas that the company is perhaps
less commonly associated with include marine
transportation, service offerings and the charging
of electric vehicles. The latter category
includes the “flash charging” of electric
buses. This technology involves automatically
connecting and topping up a bus’s batteries
at intermediate points along its route, thereby
reducing the weight of batteries and thus
making the system more economically competitive.
Following a successful test operation,
ABB recently signed a contract to deliver
the world’s first commercial “flash-charged”
bus project to the Swiss city of Geneva.
I trust this issue of ABB Review will raise your
awareness of and kindle your interest in the
challenges of electric transportation and
highlight ABB’s involvement in its ongoing
development.
Fortunately, there are many ways to meet
these challenges, ranging from hybrid or
electric cars to high-capacity metros.
The electrification and energy efficiency
aspects of such developments are core
elements of ABB’s portfolio, but the company’s
abilities are far from limited to these.
Bazmi Husain
Chief Technology Officer
ABB Group
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