LRV's without overhead cables

[lpetrich]

Kaohsiung picks CAF to build catenary-free trams  - Railway Gazette
In Taiwan

CAF is to supply a fleet of Urbos low-floor cars 2 650 mm wide, equipped with an onboard energy storage system that will be recharged at intervals along the line. This will avoid the need for either overhead catenary or an underground inductive power supply. Traction voltage has been specified at 750 V DC.

So the system will have rechargers at some of its stations? That seems like the most logical place for them.

Nothing on whether the rechargers will be plug-in or inductive ones.

[mtuandrew]

Sounds like the Edison-Beach cars a century ago (here's an example).

In this case though, I didn't realize the Urbos 3 was a supercapacitor car, meaning no expensive battery replacement after a fairly limited period of use. The range isn't exceptional, but the system in Seville uses short sections of overhead at each stop to quickly recharge the cars. The equivalent Siemens system used on their Avenio cars uses an overhead conducting rail, essentially the same in terms of the car. That's what I would use in Kaohsiung, since I have my doubts about inductive power systems being able to transfer electricity quickly enough to maintain a schedule.

[amtrakowitz]

When it comes to no overhead wires, I would trust conduit before any other system.

[lpetrich]

The Urbos 3 system is called Acumulador de Carga Rápida in Spanish -- "Fast-Charging Battery".

Acumulador de Carga Rápida - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre in Spanish (no English version)