The Wabtec FLXDrive platform (pronounced "flex-drive") is a class of

battery-electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

s manufactured by

Wabtec Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, commonly known as Wabtec, is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower in 1999. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Wab ...

GE Transportation GE Transportation is a division of Wabtec. It was known as GE Rail and owned by General Electric until sold to Wabtec on February 25, 2019. The organization manufactures equipment for the railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generatio ...

subsidiary beginning in 2019. Using a modified version of the

GE Evolution Series The Evolution Series is a line of diesel locomotives built by GE Transportation Systems (now owned by Wabtec), initially designed to meet the United States, U.S. United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA's United States emission standa ...

platform, FLXdrive is Wabtec's first zero-emissions locomotive, storing energy in 20 racks of

lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energ ...

cells. FLXDrive is a hybrid-electric locomotive, meaning it works in conjunction with traditional

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

s to provide

regenerative braking Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy or potential energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. Typically, regenerativ ...

for a train. The first-generation locomotives (with a capacity of 2.4 MWh) are able to operate 30 to 40 minutes at full power when being not connected to another locomotive. The first prototype locomotive, number 3000, was successfully tested on

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

in 2021 and found to reduce fuel consumption when paired with conventional diesel-electric locomotives. Since 2020, FLXDrive locomotives have been ordered by

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

, Rio Tinto,

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

, and

Roy Hill Roy Hill may refer to: * Roy Hill mine, an iron ore mine in Western Australia * Roy Hill railway, a railway line associated with the Roy Hill mine * Roy Hill Station Roy Hill Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station, located about sout ...

. The first locomotives are scheduled to enter service in 2023. In 2022, Wabtec announced a line of battery-electric locomotives including six-axle, four-axle, and foreign market variants. Wabtec plans to market the FLXDrive in tandem with hydrogen-powered locomotives, allowing the two types to complement each other. On October 31, 2023, Wabtec unveiled the first production FLXDrive locomotive planned for delivery to the Australian

ore railway in 2024. That unit, however, was never delivered and is now part of the test fleet.

Customers

References

External links

FLXdrive
C-C locomotives Freight locomotives Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 2019 Battery electric locomotives {{loco-stub