ISE Corporation ("International Space Enterprises", later "Innovative Solutions for Energy") was a manufacturer and integrator of heavy-duty hybrid electric powertrain systems for

transit bus A transit bus (also big bus, commuter bus, city bus, town bus, urban bus, stage bus, public bus, public transit bus, or simply bus) is a type of bus used in public transport bus services. Several configurations are used, including low-floo ...

and truck use, based in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

and later

Poway, California Poway () is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. Poway's rural roots influenced its motto "The City in the Country". The city had a population of 48,841 as of the 2020 United States census. Poway is part of San Diego's East ...

. ISE was founded in 1995 and filed for bankruptcy in 2010, shortly after raising $20 million in its

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on the

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History

ISE Corporation was founded in January 1995 by David M. Mazaika and Michael C. Simon, engineers who had formerly worked for

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

. The company's initial funding came from a research grant provided by the

South Coast Air Quality Management District The South Coast Air Quality Management District, also using the acronym South Coast (AQMD), formed in 1976, is the air pollution agency responsible for regulating stationary sources of air pollution in the South Coast Air Basin and the Coachel ...

to develop and test hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle components. ISE entered a strategic partnership with

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

in 2002, where ISE would use the Siemens ELFA traction motor, inverter, and generator in its series hybrid drivetrain systems for the United States. ISE started as an integrator, refitting vehicles with hybrid electric or electric power, including transit buses, tow tractors, and trucks. In the first quarter of 2005, ISE moved from San Diego to Poway. After it declared bankruptcy in 2010, ISE sold its assets at auction to Bluways USA in February 2011 for $3.76 million.

Products

ISE Corporation had two divisions: the first, simply named ISE, supported space exploration by designing micro-rover vehicles for developing and testing space system software. The second, ISE Research, was dedicated to developing hybrid electric powertrains for heavy-duty transportation applications (Class 6 and up trucks, tow tractors, transit buses). In total, ISE shipped approximately 300 hybrid electric drivetrain systems. ISE Research used the brand ThunderVolt to refer to the series hybrid drivetrains it had developed. The drivetrain included the traction motor(s) and controllers (branded ELFA, provided by

), an energy storage system (battery, charger, and management; or ultracapacitor), auxiliary power unit (APU, to generate electric power for the traction motor and energy storage systems), and hybrid system controllers. As integrated into a mid-size (30') ElDorado National E-Z Rider transit bus, APU options included conventional piston engines (

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

V8 or

Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, electric vehicle components, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipmen ...

5.9L), using diesel, gasoline, propane, or compressed natural gas; Capstone gas turbine; and

hydrogen fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

. ISE introduced the Hybrid Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (HHICE) variant of the ThunderVolt in 2005. The HHICE bus used a Ford Triton V10 gasoline engine that had been converted to burn hydrogen, coupled with an electric generator as the APU for the series hybrid system; it was first tested by SunLine Transit Agency. During revenue service with SunLine, the HHICE engine overheated twice and caught fire once in three separate incidents in 2007.

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

ordered ten hydrogen-powered buses from ISE in 2007, split equally as five fuel cell and five HHICE APU buses.

Clients

Selected users of transit buses equipped with ISE hybrid drivetrains included:

References

External links

*{{cite web , url=http://www.isecorp.com/ , title=Home Page , publisher=ISE Corporation , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19990208014040/http://www.isecorp.com/ , archive-date=February 8, 1999 , url-status=dead Defunct manufacturing companies based in California