EV Bus does 1,100 miles on a single charge

[Ares]

.....and only took an hour to fully recharge.

Hello future: https://futurism.com/an-electric-bus-just-broke-th...

[kambites]

I suppose it's not difficult to get a decent range in a bus where a tonne or two of batteries makes little difference. I can't imagine it's cheap, but then I suppose nor is fueling a diesel bus at 8mpg or whatever they do.

[SystemParanoia]

i cant figure out what the docking thing is doing... where its coming from or why it matters.

[DonkeyApple]

Impressive. But note the article said 'could be' not 'was' recharged in an hour. To me that's always fund raising code for 'we can't'.

I wonder what impact being full of passengers and thousands of stop/starts has on that range and whether it is great enough yet to genuinely replace a modern hybrid bus? It would be interesting to know the purchase cost with all those batteries on board.

Certainly the sooner urban buses can go full EV the better for everyone. Although the new hybrid ones have made a massive difference in London just through using electricity to get under way and not chugging fumes while stationary.

[kambites]

I really don't have a feeling for how far a typical city bus travels in a day. I suspect it's really not very far.

Long-distance coaches obviously don't do all the stoping and starting.

Edited by kambites on Wednesday 20th September 20:07

[Alucidnation]

About fking time really as buses must be the biggest polluting vehicles out there.

In fact, I amazed there are still so many old models chuffing out.

[poing]

It wasn't really used in a real life conditions though. I don't mind a bit of headline grabbing but at least tell the truth. A bus, by it's nature, needs to carry people. It needs to speed up and slow down and it needs to be driven by a homicidal maniac not a calm professional driver going at a constant slow speed.

To be fair to them I think they estimate 350 miles in real driving, likely depends how many cyclists are stuck in the wheels, and the average London bus does around 100 miles a day so it's more than possible to use these which would be fantastic progress.

If we can now find a way to charge it using the farts of passengers we'll have free public transport!

[anonymous-user]

smaller battery with overhead recharging points would make better sense right now.

[SystemParanoia]

The Spruce goose said:

smaller battery with overhead recharging points would make better sense right now.

[alex290568]

So we've gone full circle.

Come back trolley bus and tram 😀

[stevesingo]

IMO inner city public transport is where EVs and Hybrids make the most sense. Low speeds mead aero drag is minimal and regen braking puts back in a decent proportion of what is taken out of the battery, and consequently there is a reduction of brake lining particles to breath in.

[Ares]

poing said:

It wasn't really used in a real life conditions though. I don't mind a bit of headline grabbing but at least tell the truth. A bus, by it's nature, needs to carry people. It needs to speed up and slow down and it needs to be driven by a homicidal maniac not a calm professional driver going at a constant slow speed.

To be fair to them I think they estimate 350 miles in real driving, likely depends how many cyclists are stuck in the wheels, and the average London bus does around 100 miles a day so it's more than possible to use these which would be fantastic progress.

If we can now find a way to charge it using the farts of passengers we'll have free public transport!

Nice. Well done for your strong entry into prick of the week.

[DonkeyApple]

Are you massively pro bus drivers or did you miss the nuance of that sentence?

[untakenname]

Remember reading an article years ago back when F1 was using flywheels for KER's about how it was going to revolutionise bus's in London.

Just found it https://www.wired.com/2014/07/f1-kers-london-buses...

Wonder what has happened since then, are any in production?

There's a bus route in London which uses hydrogen which is eerily quiet when the bus approaches then sounds bizarre from behind but apart from that I haven't noticed any fully ev ones.

[DonkeyApple]

There are 2,535 hybrid buses, 71 electric buses, and eight hydrogen buses currently operating in London, out of a total bus fleet of 9,616. The first hybrid bus was introduced on route 360 in March 2006 and over 300 were in passenger service by July 2012.

Low emission buses in London - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_emission_buses...

[essayer]

kambites said:

I really don't have a feeling for how far a typical city bus travels in a day. I suspect it's really not very far.

Long-distance coaches obviously don't do all the stoping and starting.

Edited by kambites on Wednesday 20th September 20:07

This piqued my interest so I had a look - looks like most London bus routes are about 8 miles and take an hour in each direction, so even in use 24hr the daily mileage wouldn’t be colossal

[TooMany2cvs]

660kWh battery pack, 1100 mile range = 1.7 miles/kWh = about twice as much as a Tesla. But under VERY much more controlled conditions than even the basic driving cycle.

As for recharging 660kWh in one hour... That's only 60A... at 11kV...

[DonkeyApple]

essayer said:

kambites said:

I really don't have a feeling for how far a typical city bus travels in a day. I suspect it's really not very far.

Long-distance coaches obviously don't do all the stoping and starting.

Edited by kambites on Wednesday 20th September 20:07

This piqued my interest so I had a look - looks like most London bus routes are about 8 miles and take an hour in each direction, so even in use 24hr the daily mileage wouldn’t be colossal

It's more the relentless stop/start that would present the biggest drain as opposed to the distance. It's not just at each bus stop but numerous times between each stop.

But, given the amount of muck they throw out then going pure EVs for these, taxis and minicabs would make an absolutely enormous difference to air and noise quality in a city like London. The other one is vans. At certain times of day queues in the Square Mile are purely comprised of minicabs and vans. Switching vans to EV is a much more complex task and to be honest I can't see it happening any time soon but moving them to hybrid along with stop/start tech is again a positive step.

[maffski]

kambites said:

I suppose it's not difficult to get a decent range in a bus where a tonne or two of batteries makes little difference. I can't imagine it's cheap, but then I suppose nor is fueling a diesel bus at 8mpg or whatever they do.

They do a range of battery sizes for different, erm, ranges. They also claim the bus is cheaper over it's lifetime than diesel ones

From their website - https://www.proterra.com/products/catalyst-40ft/

TooMany2cvs said:

660kWh battery pack, 1100 mile range = 1.7 miles/kWh = about twice as much as a Tesla. But under VERY much more controlled conditions than even the basic driving cycle.

They claim 250-350 miles real world.

[Bristol spark]

Why not just put overhead lines in cities, like San Francisco?