Like many other vehicle owners in Southern California, Universal Studios Hollywood is switching to electric. The park is introducing four new electric trams for its Studio Tour, with plans to convert the entire 21-vehicle fleet.
Universal's trams have been running on diesel, so the switch not only will eliminate direct carbon emissions but also will make the vehicles quieter - which is nice not just for guests but also the many film and television productions along the tour route. The new trams will be among the "largest battery-powered, off-road, high-torque and low speed mass people movers in the U.S.," according to the park.
The electric trams will use inductive charging technology from WAVE (Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification) by Ideanomics, charging at the start and end of the tour route. Like the Teslas that are now ubiquitous on Southern California highways, the new Universal trams will have regenerative braking, allowing the trams to charge when going downhill or coming to a stop on the tour.
"I am extremely proud of this innovative undertaking and our commitment to creating a zero-emissions Studio Tour fleet in collaboration with our parent company and local partners," Universal Studios Hollywood Executive Vice President and General Manager Scott Strobl said. "This is just one of many steps we are taking to transform our business in line with Comcast NBCUniversal's carbon neutral goal, all while pioneering first-class attractions for our guests."
L.A.-based Complete Coach Works also worked on the tram redesign, which was supported in part by a grant from California'a South Coast Air Quality Management District. Universal also received support from Southern California Edison through its Charge Ready Transport Program.
"It is truly so exciting to see initiatives like Universal Studios Hollywood's new fleet of electric Studio Tour trams come to fruition - initiatives that show our public and private entities working together to do our part to combat air quality and climate change," Los Angeles City Councilmember and South Coast Air Quality Management District Board Member Nithya Raman said.
Beyond the trams inside the park, Universal Studios Hollywood is one of the more accessible theme parks in the United States via public transportation, with a Metro subway stop on Lankershim Boulevard at USH's property entrance.
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Glad to hear. Only surprise is that it took this long. Not just from an environmental standpoint, but from the noise.
Apparently, the process took five years, starting in 2017. Getting fast charging to work for vehicles this size, on the trams' operation schedule, is quite a bit bigger scale than supercharging a Tesla Model X, so I can see why doing this took a while.
I'm going to have a chance to ask more about this tech next week, so if you have any questions, post 'em here in the comments.
Robert beat me to the punch here, but if you'd like to do a little reading on the wireless charging this is a good place to start (https://waveipt.com). It's great for mass transit for a lot of systemic reasons: Fewer things break, easier to charge, etc. It's not inherently true (as the company implies) that it's "faster" but they are working with a higher voltage setup (from what I can tell) than, say, your standard ChargePoint station.
I'd be curious to know what the timeframe is on getting the rest of the trams on board, how long it takes to charge a tram full and how long a tram can run without being charged at all. I think this is a good system (a tram is theoretically always only 10 minutes away from getting a little boost) but I'm curious to know how much juice they have.
Okay, and if you can stomach it... can you please ask what the towing capacity is of the tram? I'm dying to know.
There are additional advantages with the trams going electric:
* Noise reduction from lack of combustion engine.
* Tram is to be fully enclosed while running (no emissions).
These two alone allow a further capability for experiences on the tour. More inclosed spaces without the danger of emissions. I doubt they'll say anything notable, but no harm in asking what these aspect will effect the experiences.
Other questions:
* How many volts the contact chargers give out to the trams?
* Do they expect both charging points to fill up the batteries per tram tour, or is this more topping off and need to fully recharge each day?
Good talk on the tech situation which is complex but sure they wanted to iron out the bugs first before implementing. This is good, quieter and smoother so should be a great upgrade.
They have been testing these electric trams every now and then since around the end of summer of last year and I was fortunate enough to ride one. I found that they made the experience so much better because you didn't have to fight against the loud engine noise to try to hear the guide. It's super quiet and you can just hear all of the sounds of the backlot. Additionally, the smell of the exhaust wasn't present which made it a more comfortable experience. I hope this change works out well for USH and that they'll be able to charge them efficiently.
I hope now that Disney get rid off those smelly cars in Autopia.
Was just thinking the same thing about the cars at Tomorrowland Speedway.
To be frank, the Speedway and Autopia lasting as long as they have is amazing.
If we ever got a similar chance for a tech talk at Autopia, I would be in heaven.
I'm wondering if the places at which the tram stops (Jaws, Earthquake, flash flood) will have induction chargers as well? That could help top them up during the tour (though I don't know how well this works on wet ground).
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Nice change that makes sense for the tram tour. Well done Universal!