Seattle is set to make transportation history as the first city in the United States to deploy double-decker electric buses equipped with inductive wireless charging technology.
Sound Transit, Seattle’s public transit agency, has placed an order for 33 Alexander Dennis Enviro500EV double-decker electric buses and 15 60-foot articulated electric buses. These buses will be powered by 13 300 kW in-ground inductive chargers manufactured by InductEV, a wireless EV charging company based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
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Scheduled for delivery in 2026, the double-decker buses will feature a Voith Electrical Drive System and boast increased energy storage capacity. They will be assembled in the United States by Big Rig Manufacturing, a partner of UK-based Alexander Dennis.
The electric buses will serve Sound Transit’s new Stride bus rapid transit, which is being developed along Interstate 405 to connect areas north, east, and south of Lake Washington. Sound Transit plans to charge the buses both on route and in depots, leveraging the region’s abundance of renewable energy sources, which account for nearly half of the electricity in the Puget Sound region.
InductEV’s wireless charging technology is already in use or scheduled for deployment in approximately 100 electric buses across Washington State, along with 35 InductEV in-ground wireless charging pads.
