As the world enters a new era of clean and efficient transportation, ABB is uniquely positioned to lend its considerable expertise to the technical challenges that lie ahead. With a long and distinguished history in the field, ABB continues to be a leading source of new developments in e-mobility.
The story begins more than 125 years ago. That is when two of ABB’s predecessor companies – Brown, Boveri & Cie AG (BBC) and Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO) – were already making names for themselves in transportation. These pioneering technology companies developed an array of electric technologies for railways, streetcars and marine vessels, among others. In the process, they built a strong foundation for what was to come.
Electrifying the railways
MFO was the first ABB predecessor company to bring its e-mobility technologies to market, supplying electrical equipment to the first two electric streetcar lines in Switzerland: the Vevey-Montreux-Chillon, opening in 1888, and the Sissach-Gelerkinden-Bahn, in 1891.
At that same time, the British engineer Charles Brown Sr., was becoming impressed by electricity’s potential to revolutionize rail transportation. Brown, who had founded the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM) in 1871, was already deeply engaged in the production of steam locomotives when he began working on electric traction. SLM ultimately went on to supply the mechanical components for nearly all Swiss electric locomotives for many decades. One of his sons – Charles E. L. Brown, who worked with his father in the 1880s – co-founded Brown Boveri & Cie (BBC) 1891.
In 1895, BBC manufactured the electrical equipment for the world’s first three-phase electric motor to be used for transportation, in the Swiss city of Lugano. Three years later BBC electrified several high-altitude mountain railways, including the world-famous Jungfraubahn, which still climbs to the impressive height of 3,500 meters. In 1899, BBC equipped one of the world’s first mainline electric locomotives, which served on Switzerland’s Burgdorf-Thun railway – Europe’s first electrified standard-gauge line.
Jungfrau-Bahn cog railway (Ca. 1928) 
Streetcar in Lugano (1896) 
Burgdorf-Thun-Bahn locomotive (1908)
In the early 1900s, MFO and BBC independently launched landmark electrification projects on the Swiss Federal Railway (SBB) network. Between 1905 and 1909, MFO – at its own expense – conducted trials on electrifying a section of the former Swiss “Nationalbahn” railway between Zurich-Seebach and Wettingen (now part of the Zurich suburban network). These trials demonstrated that single-phase alternating current was suitable for the electrification of long-distance railways.
In Late 1905, BBC decided to electrify – at its own cost and risk – the 20-kilometer, single-track Simplon tunnel through the Alps between Brig, Switzerland, and Iselle, Italy. The feat, which BBC completed in six months, made it possible to replace the smoke-belching, coal-fired trains that had previously plied the tunnel (to respiratory distress of passengers and crew).
With the shortage of coal in the First World War came strong incentives for SBB to further expand Switzerland’s network of electric rail lines. BBC, MFO and another predecessor company, Société Anonyme des Ateliers de Sécheron (SAAS), served as the primary suppliers for this expansion. The process began in earnest in 1916, when SBB decided to electrify the Gotthard railway. BBC and SLM supplied 40 passenger-train locomotives, while MFO and SLM supplied 50 freight locomotives. With top speeds of 75 kilometers per hour for the passenger trains and 65 k.p.h. for the freighters, these Gotthard locomotives handled rail traffic for many years and became icons of the Swiss railways in the process. That was particularly true for the 20-meter-long, snout-nosed “crocodile” freight engines, which stayed in service for nearly 60 years.
After the completion of the Gotthard line, SBB focused on extending its electric rail network down to the plains and up into the Jura Mountains. By 1927, it was possible to run an electric locomotive all the way from Lake Constance in the east to Lake Geneva in the west. With ABB predecessor companies playing central roles, electricity had proven its worth on railways in Switzerland and beyond.
While all that was taking place in Switzerland, up in Sweden the company then known as ASEA – now the “A” in ABB – was providing the electrical equipment for the streetcars in Stockholm by 1901. But ASEA also developed heavy-duty gear and in 1923 it equipped the electric, articulated locomotives that pulled daunting loads on the Norwegian section of the famous Malmbanan “Iron Ore Line.” ASEA also equipped the electric locomotives for the 460-kilometer mainline between Stockholm and Gothenburg, which was electrified in 1925.
Among the key innovations introduced by ABB’s forebears was the hugely successful single-axle Buchli drive, which led to export orders and license agreements for similar locomotives used in Germany, Czechoslovakia, France, Spain and Japan. They also brought to market the first Ae 4/4 high-performance “bogie” locomotives to market. These used fully powered axles, replacing older designs that featured a combination of carrying axles and powered axles. Ae 4/4 locomotives, with a top speed of 120 k.p.h., soon became an industry standard.
In subsequent innovations, which included applying solid-state components to locomotives and providing the first X2000 tilting high-speed trains to SJ in Sweden for express service between Stockholm and Gothenburg, ABB and its predecessors were at the forefront of electric rail technology for most of the 20th century.
Following the merger of ASEA and BBC to form the ABB Group in 1987, their respective transportation businesses became an independent company within the group, which was eventually sold to Bombardier. While ABB no longer builds complete locomotives, it continues to supply many high-performance components for demanding rail traction applications.
Propulsion systems for ships
ABB, through its predecessors, also has more than 100 years of experience in the development of marine machinery and the development of electric propulsion solutions for ships.
In 1901, BBC became the first company in Europe to build a marine turbine. The company went on to play a leading role in the development of naval applications for this technology. Given Charles Brown’s expertise in land-based electric transportation projects, it is not surprising that he was an early advocate for the use of electricity on ships. As early as 1904, BBC held a patent for an electrical drive to propel ships at cruising speed. In 1906, Brown completed a project for the English admiralty on the potential of his turbo-electric drives. While BBC did not manufacture the first seagoing turbo-electric propulsion systems, which were first introduced in 1916, it was clear from Brown’s study that he clearly understood how to use electrical equipment to power marine vessels.
BBC’s first successes in the use of electricity for powering ships came with its turbo-generators, which were developed for the marine auxiliaries market starting in 1901. This business grew rapidly, and, starting in 1916, BBC began to produce so-called scavenging blowers for two-stroke marine diesel engines – a device that was comparable to a turbocharger used on a four-stroke engine. Thanks to the company’s advanced high-speed DC motor technology, which had been developed for other applications, it rapidly established a global monopoly in the electrically driven scavenging blower market. In 1923, BBC began working on the development of turbocharging blowers for exhaust-gas turbines, to increase the power of diesel engines. These charging blowers increased the output of four-stroke diesel engines by as much as 50 percent, saved weight and space, reduced fuel consumption, and increased the service life of engines.
While many of BBC’s electrical technologies remained in service on ships, the advent of high-efficiency diesel engines in the mid-20th century essentially eliminated the use of turbo-electric propulsion systems in merchant marine vessels. It would take a new round of innovation – variable-speed electric drives -- to make electric propulsion practical once again for the marine sector. This technology was first put into service in the late 1970s aboard a Russian icebreaker as well as the Arana. The Arana, a Finnish research ship that used AC motors for propulsion, was fitted by ABB, working with shipbuilder Wartsila.
Around the same time, designers began to think that a submerged electrical rudder propeller drive could be commercially viable. ABB cooperated with Wartsila to develop the technology, which ultimately resulted in the production of a 1.5-megawatt unit called the Azipod. An Azipod propulsion system was installed in 1991 on the icebreaker Seili, with dramatic results. Previously incapable of breaking ice astern, the newly equipped vessel was now powerful enough to break ice up to 0.6 meters thick while moving in reverse.
ABB has steadily enhanced the design and devised new applications for Azipod. Today, this revolutionary electric-drive motor serves to improve vessel safety, energy efficiency, maneuverability and performance for a wide range of marine applications.
Electric vehicles and charging solutions
ABB’s predecessor companies were also interested in devising ways to use electricity to power cars, buses and road vehicles. During World War I, BBC converted a gasoline-powered truck into an electric vehicle. The company manufactured electric carts, resembling modern forklifts, through the mid-1940s, along with various battery-powered cars and carts for waste disposal and the delivery of products on factory sites.
Around the same time, MFO began work on an electric bus that used an on-board flywheel for power storage – a departure from the more familiar trolleybuses that drew power from overhead electrical wires. The prototype was completed in 1946. Despite its potential, the “Gyrobus” ultimately only went into service in experimentally adventuresome locales: the cities of Yverdon in Switzerland, Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) in the Congo, and Ghent in Belgium, as well as in the Gonzenwek mine in Switzerland.
While these early forays into the EV field did not yield commercial results, ABB kept a close eye on developments in the sector. When conditions changed, the company made a series of investments in DC fast-charging systems for EVs. ABB’s ultra-fast-charging stations can reduce charging times – previously an overnight process – to as little as 12 minutes.
Today, ABB has installed more than 6,000 cloud-connected fast-charging stations in 56 countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, the United States and Canada.
ABB is also developing e-mobility solutions for public transport. Since 2017, new, all-electric, high-capacity articulated buses that use ABB’s robotic flash-charging stations have gone into service in France and Switzerland. Built into bus shelters, these units give a boost to the vehicle’s batteries in the 20 seconds or so spent at the stop. Flash charging makes it possible to reduce the size and weight of the bus’s battery pack significantly, enabling the world’s first practical, urban, all-electric bus routes without overhead wires. ABB’s e-bus solutions are not limited to flash chargers, though. A range of the company’s charging solutions can be found in service in cities across Europe and North America.
ABB now offers a broad array of EV charging technologies for cars, buses and even ships, as well as network monitoring, servicing and support based on the ABB Ability portfolio of digital solutions, hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. The company also offers an extensive line of products and services that increase the reliability and sustainability of national power grids, enabling grid operators to meet the demands associated with EV charging while simultaneously facilitating the integration of renewable energy sources.
A legacy of writing the future
ABB and its predecessor companies have been deeply involved in the development of the technologies that make e-mobility possible. Most recently, its trailblazing partnership with the ABB FIA Formula E Championship racing series spotlights the fact that the technology behind e-mobility has truly come of age – and that electric vehicles, besides being clean and efficient, can be high-performance machines. ABB, with its unrivalled expertise in electrification and leadership in EV charging solutions, is the ideal partner for the world’s premier all-electric racing series.
As electric transportation matures into its new role as a dominant transportation technology, ABB will continue to deliver innovations that will make e-mobility even more efficient, practical and sustainable.
