Volftif wants the railway operators to avoid diesel

DAPHNA LANGER has a bold ambition: to remove carbon railway industry in less than a decade.

how? By persuading American railways to ship to switch from diesel power to rechargeable batteries – it can make LANGER estimates of business style, Volftiv, up to $ 10 billion a year.

The railway industry needs to reduce its emissions by 5 % annually by 2030 to reach net scratch goals, according to a report issued in 2023 International Energy Agency. In addition, the shift to battery electricity would provide US rail charging companies 94 billion dollars over the course of 20 years, according to a study conducted in 2021 published in the magazine Nature energy.

Voltify’s Voltcars-Sodium Ion batteries are mainly designed on wheels-to connect to current shipping locomotives.

to convince American railway industry worth $ 80 billion It may seem that the transition from traditional and long fossil fuels to renewable energy may be a difficult task, but there are several reasons that Langer said is confident in Voltevi’s goal.

After spent a multiple work period of early companies in the climate industry, he noticed that two things were limited to their growth. She said: “Most of them depend on government subsidies, and the second (worker) is that they depend on manufacturing and expansion that is not present today.”

In an attempt to overcome these obstacles, a contract to rent meetings with hundreds of people in the energy and material industries, and are looking for opportunities. She said that when she met the co -founder for the first time Alon Kisel, she was the moment of “squash”.

Kisail knew the renewable energy market well, after participating in its founding RoleIt is a company that owns and manages dozens of solar energy farms in the United States and Europe. It has been calculated that the largest sixteen railway companies in the United States – including Pacific Ocean Union and CSX They were collectively spent more than 11 billion dollars annually on diesel, a number verified by CNBC. Union Pacific, for example, spent approximately $ 2.5 billion on fuel in 2024, each The annual report.

He saw Lancer and Kalil chance. What if they can persuade large companies – known as the 1 Class Railways – to convert their diesel locomotives into battery power?

“The conversion of six companies is not difficult. It has the ability to create such an impact with only six companies, it is huge,” Langer said. There are approximately 140,000 miles of railway shipping in the United States, with the majority of diesel locomotives because there is a few electrification of public expenditures.

He founded Langer and Koles Volftiv in 2023 and started meeting railway companies. But they found primary resistance. “There is a lot of doubts, because this is a traditional industry, and the time and reliability are the key,” Langer said. “We have discovered what could be able to … fit their schedule, to suit their operations without damaging their efficiency.”

The greatest interest of companies was the amount of time that the batteries might take, and that there is always the power source to do so. “The railway companies, which were very frankly, listen to it, (he said), we are not really concerned with the source of energy. We just need to make sure that there is always energy,” said Langer.

Langer said that Voltev spent about a year working on an algorithm that could expect energy requirements for trains “in every road”, and the company is also building the first MicroGrid solar energy that Langer said is on the right track until the end of the year. “Our accounts show that a network of this microGRIDS can eventually operate all trains in North America,” Langers told CNBC in an email. Volftif can do this requires 1,400 microscopic.

Langer said Voltev was “very active” talks with three of the largest railway companies in North America, adding that it is scheduled to run a demonstration project with a smaller railway company later this year. Voltify also started a pilot with a Series 1 railway company in early 2026, and Langer said that this is expected to become a commercial publication after several months.

Volftif is not the first company to reach the idea of running charging trains with batteries. In 2019, the Railways Company Shipping Wabtec An electric battery locomice called Flxdrive, with the first trains operating in Australia after it was requested by the Miner BHP group. The company also tested Electric battery locomotive with GE said in an email to CNBC that it plans to test and operate Flxdrive trains in the North and South American markets.

Technology can reduce diesel consumption and emissions by 30 %, according to Tim Bader, Director of External and Engineering Communications at WABTEC, in an email to CNBC. “This interest is very important because fuel is one of the main operating costs of the railway,” he said.

But with the emergence of technology, there are challenges such as charging time and battery capacity, as well as a “difficult” working state given the required infrastructure investments. Badr said: “Like any emerging technology, these challenges will decrease as the industry continues to search and improve battery power solutions.”

There is also a “Great” market capabilities for battery passenger trains, according to Tobias Bauer, CEO of the Prosecution for the prosecution Siemens North America’s mobility, in an email to CNBC. Power said: “The battery -powered train trains represent a new and exciting platform for the railway market, especially since operators are looking for alternatives to the immovable roads,” Power said.

Siemens Mobility sold more than 400 sigrs for the PV charger in North America, and in June it launched its photovoltaic train, the B+AC, which sells 13 to the New York Transport Authority and the North.

The new locomotive goes electricity from the upper wires and transport to the battery power when needed, according to Online version. While the range of locomotives is currently 100 miles, Power said it is expected to grow with the progress of battery technology.

In February, Siemens Mobility received a request from Swiss Freight Widmer Rail Services for two Vectron Li -ion battery locomotives, which can be used to move without the need for upper power lines. In response to a question about the possibility of battery charging trains, Power said: “The full transition to batteries shipping depends on the details of the road and the infrastructure shipping, but the capabilities exist.”

– Michael Weyland of CNBC contributed to this report.