Although other methods have been studied recently, the regenerative brake system has been contributing to reduced energy consumption on electric railway vehicles for over 30 years. However, there are a lot of problems associated with such systems, such as regeneration being cancelled out and restrictions on regenerative power. In order to utilize and recycle braking energy and secure a steady regenerative load, we selected lithium ion batteries to store electric energy and developed a rechargeable lithium ion battery (600V system) for use on electric railway vehicles. The battery under development has demonstrated excellent performance in terms of energy and power density, efficiency, 500A charge and discharge current. In this paper, we report on an energy recycling contactwire-less tramcar that uses the rechargeable lithium ion batteries and show the tramcar's performance and characteristics of the battery as developed.

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