Proterra touring California with fast-charging electric bus - AutoblogGreen Maybe this can trailblaze a 10 minute charger network?
From the article: That is a measly range. I suspect this bus will be used for a pre-defined route and won't venture out of town. The '10 minute' charger hookup will probably just be at 'home base'. I wouldn't get my hopes up much for this to drive installation of a big 'network' of chargers just yet.
Even with a 30-40 mile range, a bus like that could prove quite useful. For instance, a corporate shuttle between different 'campus' buildings. Or a parking lot shuttle between an events center and the parking lots. Or even as a sight-seeing tour bus for a historic downtown area. I don't see it being used for 'long haul' though. People wouldn't appreciate 10+ stops (one every 20 minutes) if they tried to hop between 10 minute charges every 30 miles between SF and LA for instance. The high speed rail plan with power lines over the tracks will be a better way to go for long distance.
In the comments in the article I think people mentioned a city bus route usually doesn't exceed ~25 miles. I think this is still more useful for the city in places where it's not possible to install overhead wires and use the standard electric trolley bus (which basically is perfect for most areas of cities). For longer ranges, trains make a lot more sense for public transit.
Yeah I posted an article a long time back about buses in London 100 years ago doing a morning's work, swapping batteries, then continuing for the afternoon. They had around a 38 mile range.
I'm not sure what size pack the bus has but I suspect the 10 minute / 30 to 40 miles numbers means it has about 35kWh. The bus can do a greater dod than the Tesla pack and can make good use of it brake regen they say is 90+ percent efficient. I have read where they can give the buses a bigger pack for a longer range. I hope to find out more about these guys.
so put 2 in the Roadster :biggrin: Charge both at the same time in 10 minutes .... LOL Like two tanks on a large truck,
The reason the range is so bad can probably be attirbuted to its altairnano batteries. Dpeilow's London buses put this bus in perspective.
Another EV bus makes an appearance, this time with an 80kWh battery: Optare demonstrates electric bus at UK test track
Altairnano Batteries Make Proterra A Magic Bus Some interesting numbers there; calculations I did for hydrogen fuel cell buses (for Vancouver Winder Olympics) work out to around $4-5M a piece. Add to it infrastructure, hydrogen and extra insurance of course Proterra should approach MTA, who operates the largest hybrid bus fleet in the world.
Korea begins first commercial electric bus service http://www.gizmag.com/korea-begins-first-commercial-electric-bus-service/17385/
That's awesome. Should replace all those dirty city buses with something like this. Wonder how much regen they're getting, though. I keep hearing the pneumatic brakes. Btw, instead of an inductive charging pad under the car, I'd prefer a similar kind of passive self alignment scheme for the lazy.