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Electric Bus Poll (for a BRT Proposal)


Jova42R

Which of the following electric buses are best suited for a medium-ridership suburban BRT line?   

17 members have voted

  1. 1. Which of the following electric buses are best suited for a medium-ridership suburban BRT line? - YOU CAN PICK MORE THAN ONE!!!!

    • Nova Bus LFSe+
    • Nova Bus LFXe+
    • Proterra Catalyst BE40 E2 max
    • Volvo 9700 Electric (40 ft)
    • Gillig Low Floor Electric


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No BYD, New Flyer, or Gillig options? ? :( 

Medium ridership + suburban probably do not belong in the same sentence as "BRT" and even "electric".

And what exactly is "medium ridership"? How many people per direction per hour? Frequency?

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2 minutes ago, M. Parsons said:

No BYD, New Flyer, or Gillig options? ? :( 

BYD: Whoops! Which BYD models would work?

New Flyer: They use lithium ion batteries, which harm the enviornment when they are produced

Gillig: They make battery electric buses? Which ones?

8 minutes ago, M. Parsons said:

Medium ridership + suburban probably do not belong in the same sentence as "BRT" and even "electric".

I'll post the proposal and tag you there.

9 minutes ago, M. Parsons said:

And what exactly is "medium ridership"? How many people per direction per hour? Frequency?

8-10BPH on most of the routes.

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42 minutes ago, Jova42R said:

New Flyer: They use lithium ion batteries, which harm the enviornment when they are produced

Gillig: They make battery electric buses? Which ones?

https://www.gillig.com/

As for New Flyer and lithium ion batteries... well, from the Nova Bus LFSe spec sheet:  
BATTERIES 4 Volvo high voltage lithium-ion batteries in parallel
https://novabus.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LFSe_EN_Sept2017-1.pdf

And I don't think that any battery technology is particularly harm free to the environment at this time. Some might just be a little bit less harmful. 

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3 minutes ago, M. Parsons said:

https://www.gillig.com/

As for New Flyer and lithium ion batteries... well, from the Nova Bus LFSe spec sheet:  
BATTERIES 4 Volvo high voltage lithium-ion batteries in parallel
https://novabus.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LFSe_EN_Sept2017-1.pdf

And I don't think that any battery technology is particularly harm free to the environment at this time. Some might just be a little bit less harmful. 

This is the LFS/LFXe+

(note the "+")

Which bus, overall would be best? (I added the Gillig)

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12 hours ago, edison said:

None of the above. For medium ridership I probably would go for a 35-ft bus. Although the Gillig option doesn't specify a length.

Really! Ok, which type of bus would be best (in a 35-ft length)?

However, I say that a 40-fter is fine, Why wouldn't a 40-ft bus be good?

(Honestly, a 45-fter would be best, as that would seat around 50 people, hence why I am leaning towards the Proterra BE40, that is 42 ft long and seats about 45.)

 

EDIT: If the vote stays tied by 12 PM Eastern Time, I will pick the Proterra BE40.

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8 hours ago, Jova42R said:

Really! Ok, which type of bus would be best (in a 35-ft length)?

However, I say that a 40-fter is fine, Why wouldn't a 40-ft bus be good?

(Honestly, a 45-fter would be best, as that would seat around 50 people, hence why I am leaning towards the Proterra BE40, that is 42 ft long and seats about 45.)

 

EDIT: If the vote stays tied by 12 PM Eastern Time, I will pick the Proterra BE40.

I am going off of other people's knowledge on the subject... Mainly better mileage range. If I were to compare a 35-ft diesel transit bus to a 40-ft, the MPG's are going to be better for the 35-ft. So, going off the fact it's medium service, and buses are not at capacity for the route, why bother with a 40-ft bus when we can have a little better range with a shorter bus. I really don't have enough knowledge to decide on a manufacturer. In my area (Buffalo, NY) we have not seen any Gillig or Nova battery-electric vehicles for demo. I do like the fact that Gillig stated that with the Cummins system they offer, buses could be serviced at a Cummins repair center (like for warranty stuff). But that's a minor advantage, the buses will have to get repaired one way or another. Just would hope it wouldn't require a ton of down time before the bus can be serviced.

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On 5/16/2020 at 5:02 PM, Jova42R said:

This is the LFS/LFXe+

(note the "+")

WTF does that matter with battery technology? Still very likely lithium ion and still sucks for the environment. They've just made other components of the propulsion package more efficient for longer ranges I gather

You usually hear BYD calling batteries iron phosphate, although, in reality they are still lithium iron phosphate.

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12 hours ago, M. Parsons said:

WTF does that matter with battery technology? Still very likely lithium ion and still sucks for the environment. They've just made other components of the propulsion package more efficient for longer ranges I gather

You usually hear BYD calling batteries iron phosphate, although, in reality they are still lithium iron phosphate.

See the proposal linked ^^^ above. In the end I chose the Proterra BE40

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  • 3 weeks later...

One advantage of the lithium iron phosphate chemistry is that it doesn't use cobalt. On the other hand if you want batteries that can handle  a large number of discharge/recharge cycles lithium titanite oxide batteries are better. Each battery chemistry has its advantages and disadvantages in areas like: 

use of scarce or conflict minerals;

speed of charging;

effect of temperature on charging;

number of cycles over a lifetime;

fire risk etc etc.

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