BRAZIL: Battery systems from Saft are being fitted to 58 GE Transportation locomotives used by freight operator MRS Logística.

The 64 V batteries will provide power to start the 16-cylinder engines up to 14 times a day. They are based on Saft’s SRX190 FR-PP or SRX1900P cells, provide a capacity of 190 Ah for 5 h and are designed to offer a long and low-maintenance life-cycle.

The batteries are manufactured at Saft’s factory at Bordeaux in France.

‘Brazil’s rail industry is an important growth area for Saft and this major order represents a significant breakthrough in the locomotive sector’, said Milan Sima, General Manager for Rail & Mobility at Saft. ‘The track record demonstrated by our SRX battery systems in previous rail projects across the world was the key factor in winning this order’.