Technology Review lets us in on our ultracapacitive future by offering a peep at these super hot buses equipped with, you guessed it, ultracapacitors. The cleverness here is that they get over their short range by charging at special bus stops.

There’s just one catch: the best ultracapacitors can only store about 5 percent of the energy that lithium-ion batteries hold, limiting them to a couple of miles per charge. This makes them ineffective as an energy storage medium for passenger vehicles. But what ultracapacitors lack in range they make up in their ability to rapidly charge and discharge. So in vehicles that have to stop frequently and predictably as part of normal operation, energy storage based exclusively on ultracapacitors begins to make sense.

They tell us about the stops too:

Unlike a conventional trolley bus that has to continually touch an overhead power line, Sinautec’s ultracapacitor buses take big sips of electricity every two or three miles at designated charging stations, which double as bus stops. When at these stations, a collector on the top of the bus rises a few feet and touches an overhead charging line. Within a couple of minutes, the ultracapacitor banks stored under the bus seats are fully charged.

Fantastic. Two minutes at a stop, well, that’s not ideal, but let’s assume that gets better. And, frankly, every agency but the MBTA will set those longer, charging stops at stations that are quite busy (and thus feature longer boarding times) anyway.

But wait, there’s more:

“The ultracapacitor bus is also cheaper than lithium-ion battery buses,” says Ye. “We used the Olympics (lithium-ion) bus as a model and found ours about 40 percent less expensive with a far superior reliability rating.” Ye adds that the environmental benefits are compelling. “Even if you use the dirtiest coal plant on the planet, it generates a third of the carbon dioxide of diesel when used to charge an ultracapacitor.”

And, of paramount interest to the MBTA here in Boston, these super-buses will even fix Routes 1 and especially 39:

There are some other important limitations. The 41-passenger buses, based on current technology, lose 35 percent of their range when air conditioning is turned on, and have weak acceleration.

Holy crap, since 0-60 times will be over 20 seconds, we might just be able to keep to a fucking schedule instead of racing up and down Huntington Ave all the while blaming bunching on “traffic conditions.” We can’t not buy these busses. Today!