An electric bus is a bus that is powered by electricity.
There are two main electric bus categories: autonomous and non-autonomous. Autonomous buses keep the energy stored within the vehicle, while non-autonomous buses maintain a continuous supply of electric energy from outside of the vehicle. Autonomous electric buses are majorly battery electric buses, in which the electric motor obtains energy from an on-board battery, although examples of other storage modes do exist, such as the gyrobus which uses flywheel energy storage. In non-autonomous buses electricity is supplied by contact with outside power sources. For example, overhead wires, as in the trolleybus, or with non-contact conductors on the ground, as seen in the Online Electric Vehicle.
Buses using a combination of internal combustion engines and electric propulsion are defined as hybrid electric buses or dual-mode buses, and are not covered in this article.
Video Electric bus
History
Electric vehicles have been around since the 19th century. In the early 1800's, researchers in Hungary, the Netherlands, and the United States began exploring the idea of battery-powered vehicles. There had previously been progress with an electric carriage, a horseless carriage that was powered by an electric motor. However, as people wanted to get around more easily and quickly, cars became a faster and more reasonable alternative to horse-drawn carriages.
In 1835, American Thomas Davenport is credited with building the first practical electric vehicle, a small locomotive. He developed a battery-powered electric motor which he used to operate a small model car on a short section of track.
The first successful electric car was made in the United States in 1890. William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa, built an electric vehicle that could hold up to six passengers and could reach from 6 to 12 miles per hour. Specifications for the 1890 Morrison Electric included 24 storage battery cells mounted under the front seat. The vehicle could travel for a range of 100 miles before needing to be recharged.
This initial invention helped spark interest in electric cars, and automakers started building their own versions around the globe. Due to the extreme sudden interest, electric cars reached their peak popularity by 1900 and made up a majority of all vehicles on the road.
At this time electric cars were the preferred vehicles. Gasoline-powered vehicles required a lot of effort to drive, from changing gears to starting the engine with a hand crank, as well as other cons like strong and unpleasant exhaust fumes.
However, improvements were made to the gasoline-powered car that caused the electric car to lose some momentum. The hand crank was soon replaced with an electric starter and gasoline-powered vehicles became more affordable. Gasoline cars soon overcame the popularity of electric powered vehicles.
By 1935, electric cars practically disappeared. It wasn't until the 1970's when a gas shortage hit, causing gas prices to soar, that electric cars entered back into the marketplace. Gasoline-powered cars still remained more popular due to better performance and reliability.
The 1990's saw electric cars made more popular as societal concern for the environment began to rise. At the start of the 21st century, the technology of electric cars looked more promising than ever with the release of the Toyota Prius, the first majorly manufactured electric vehicle. Today, electric vehicles are on the rise and continue to advance as more Americans demand a more efficient and eco-friendly vehicle.
Maps Electric bus
Battery electric bus
One of the most popular types of electric buses nowadays are battery electric buses. Battery electric buses have the electricity stored on board the vehicle in a battery. Today such buses can have a range of over 200 km with just one charge. These buses are usually used as city buses due to particularities in limited range. As a city bus, electric battery buses are cheaper than a comparable diesel buses.
City driving is majorly accelerating and braking. Due to this, the battery electric bus is superior to diesel bus as it can recharge most of the kinetic energy back into batteries in braking situations. This reduces brake wear on the buses and the use of electric over diesel can improve air quality in cities.
When operating within a city, it is important to minimize the unloaded and rolling weight of the bus. This can be accomplished by using aluminium as the main construction material for a bus. Composite paneling and other lightweight materials can also be used. According to Linkkebus their fully aluminium bus construction is about 3000 kg lighter than comparably-sized modern steel buses (curb weight 9500 kg). Reducing weight allows for a greater payload and reduces wear to components such as brakes, tires, and joints bringing cost savings to the operator annually.
Autonomous electric buses
An autonomous bus is an electrically-powered, self-driving vehicle that transports twelve or more passengers. Autonomous buses are operated without a driver inside the vehicle, instead utilizing cameras, sensors and remote controls to properly steer their way through traffic.
Charging
Charging electric bus batteries is not as simple as refueling diesel engine. Special attention, monitoring, and scheduling are required to make optimal use of the charging process, while also ensuring proper battery maintenance and safekeeping. Some operators manage these challenges by purchasing extra buses. This way the charging can take place only at night. It is a safe solution, but also very costly and not scalable. The real solution is ensuring that the vehicle daily schedule takes into account also the need to charge, keeping the overall schedule as close to optimal as possible.
Today, there are various software companies that help bus operators manage their electric bus charging schedule. These solutions ensure that buses continue to operate safely, without any unplanned stops and inconvenience to passengers.
Capacitors bus
Buses can use capacitors instead of batteries to store their energy. Ultracapacitors can only store about 5 percent of the energy that lithium-ion batteries hold for the same weight, limiting them to a couple of miles per charge. However ultracapacitors can charge and discharge much more rapidly than conventional batteries. In vehicles that have to stop frequently and predictably as part of normal operation, energy storage based exclusively on ultracapacitors can be a solution.
China is experimenting with a new form of electric bus, known as Capabus, which runs without continuous overhead lines by using power stored in large on-board electric double-layer capacitors, which are quickly recharged whenever the vehicle stops at any bus stop (under so-called electric umbrellas), and fully charged in the terminus.
A few prototypes were being tested in Shanghai in early 2005. In 2006, two commercial bus routes began to use electric double-layer capacitor buses; one of them is route 11 in Shanghai. In 2009, Sinautec Automobile Technologies, based in Arlington, VA, and its Chinese partner, Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Company are testing with 17 forty-one seat Ultracap Buses serving the Greater Shanghai area since 2006 without any major technical problems. Another 60 buses will be delivered early next year with ultracapacitors that supply 10 watt-hours per kilogram.
The buses have very predictable routes and need to stop regularly, every 3 miles (4.8 km), allowing opportunities for quick recharging. The trick is to turn some bus stops along the route into charging stations. At these stations, a collector on the top of the bus rises a few feet and touches an overhead charging line. Within a couple of minutes, the ultracapacitor banks stored under the bus seats are fully charged. The buses can also capture energy from braking, and the company says that recharging stations can be equipped with solar panels. A third generation of the product, will give 20 miles (32 km) of range per charge or better. Such a bus was delivered in Sofia, Bulgaria in May 2014 for 9 months' test. It covers 23 km in 2 charges.
Sinautec estimates that one of its buses has one-tenth the energy cost of a diesel bus and can achieve lifetime fuel savings of $200,000. Also, the buses use 40 percent less electricity compared to an electric trolley bus, mainly because they are lighter and have the regenerative braking benefits. The ultracapacitors are made of activated carbon, and have an energy density of six watt-hours per kilogram (for comparison, a high-performance lithium-ion battery can achieve 200 watt-hours per kilogram), but the ultracapacitor bus is also cheaper than lithium-ion battery buses, about 40 percent less expensive, with a far superior reliability rating.
There is also a plug-in hybrid version, which also uses ultracaps.
Proterra's EcoRide BE35 transit bus, called the Ecoliner by Foothill Transit in West Covina, California, is the world's first heavy duty, fast charge, battery-electric bus. Proterra's ProDrive drive-system uses a UQM motor and regenerative braking that captures 90% of the available energy and returns it to the TerraVolt energy storage system, which in turn increases the total distance the bus can drive by 31-35%. It can travel 30-40 miles on a single charge, is up to 600% more fuel-efficient than a typical diesel or CNG bus, and produces 44% less carbon than CNG.
Future developments
Sinautec is in discussions with MIT's Schindall about developing ultracapacitors of higher energy density using vertically aligned carbon nanotube structures that give the devices more surface area for holding a charge. So far, they are able to get twice the energy density of an existing ultracapacitor, but they are trying to get about five times. This would create an ultracapacitor with one-quarter of the energy density of a lithium-ion battery.
Future developments includes the use of inductive charging under the street, to avoid overhead wiring. A pad under each bus stop and at each stop light along the way would be used.
Pantographs and underbody collectors at bus stops
Pantographs and underbody collectors are integrated in bus stops to quicken electric bus recharge, making it possible to use a smaller battery on the bus, which reduces the initial investment and subsequent costs.
Zinc
There is a 40-foot (12.2 m) pure electric bus being developed, using a pre-commercial battery technology. Electric Fuel Corporation is developing and demonstrating a 40-foot (12.2 m) electric bus powered by a zinc air cell, along with an ultracapacitor. The zinc-air energy device, often described as a battery, converts zinc to zinc oxide in a process that provides energy to the bus. The bus is not recharged; instead, the zinc oxide cartridges are swapped out for new zinc ones. This bus has shown a range of over 100 miles (160 km) in testing and has been demonstrated in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, this technology is in the development phase, and several major hurdles must be overcome before it can be adopted for transit fleet use, including available refueling infrastructure or use in bus stations.
School Buses
In 2014, the first production model all-electric school bus was delivered to the Kings Canyon Unified School District in California's San Joaquin Valley. The Class-A school bus was built by Trans Tech Bus, using an electric powertrain control system developed by Motiv Power Systems, of Foster City, CA. The bus was one of four the district ordered. The first round of SST-e buses (as they are called) is partly funded by the AB 118 Air Quality Improvement Program administered by the California Air Resources Board.
The Trans Tech/Motiv vehicle has passed all KCUSD and California Highway Patrol inspections and certifications. Although some diesel hybrids are in use, this is the first modern electric school bus approved for student transportation by any state.
Since 2015 the Canadian manufacturer Lion Bus offers a full size school bus, eLion, with a body made out of composites. It is a regular production version that is built and shipped in volume since early 2016, with around 50 units sold until 2017. [4]
Makers and models
- VDL Bus & Coach
- BYD
- GreenPower Motor Company
- Linkkerbus
- Lion Bus
Transit use
- For information on where trolleybuses are in use, see Trolleybus usage by country and List of trolleybus systems.
Transit authorities that use battery buses or other types of all-electric buses, other than trolleybuses:
Asia
Malaysia
- Bandar Sunway
- Malacca
India
- India's first electric bus was launched in Bengaluru in 2014.
- In October 2016, Ashok Leyland, launched First 100% India-made electric bus. The series has been named Circuit and it can carry 35 to 65 persons at a time.
China
As of 2016, 156,000 buses are being put into service per year in China.
- Beijing
- Bengbu
- Changsha (BYD x 180 vehicles)
- Haikou (BYD)
- Shanghai (capabuses).
- Shaoguan (BYD)
- Shenzhen (BYD x 200 vehicles)
- Tianjin (BYD)
- Xi'an (BYD)
- Yancheng.
- Bengbu (BYD x 638 vehicles)
Japan
- Community Bus "Hamurun" (Operated by Nishi Tokyo Bus) in Hamura, Tokyo since March 10, 2012
- Community Bus "Sumida Hyakkei" (Operated by Keisei Bus) in Sumida, Tokyo since March 20, 2012
- Kitakyushu City, Japan.
South Korea
- Seoul has 15 electric buses nicknamed "Peanut Bus" for their shape, transferring people from subway stations in downtown to the N Seoul Tower, circulating Mt. Namsan.
- Seoul's Gangnam District will have 11 electric buses in operation from February 2013 and 270 electric buses by the end of 2013, increasing to 400 buses by 2014. At least 3,500 electric buses will be introduced in phases until 2020, which will account for half of Seoul's bus fleet.
- Gumi will have the world's first wireless electric bus, known as Online Electric Vehicle, in operation from July 2013 developed by KAIST. Electricity is wirelessly fed into the bus from the tracks.
- Pohang will have automatically battery switching electric buses in operation from July 2013. Unlike conventional plug-in charging buses, the battery pack is automatically swapped with a fully charged one before complete drainage.
Europe
Belarus
- ?433 «Vitovt Max Electro» (Minsk)
Finland
- Espoo Cobus EL2500 (bus 11 Friisilä-Tapiola Centre)
- Espoo (Linkker 2 vehicles, Bus 11 line Tapiola centre-Friisilä)
France
- RATP (Paris): Line 341 is the first line of 100% electric full-size Bluebuses.
Great Britain
- 51 electric buses for the 507 and 521 bus routes in London, delivered jointly by BYD and ADL. It's a nice touch that former 500/600 trolleybus numbers have been allotted to fully electric routes.
- Strathclyde Partnership for Transport have begun running battery-powered electric buses on one route in Glasgow, between George Square and the Transport Museum.
Bristol: Route 72 from City Centre to Frenchay UWE campus. This is the longest of the routes and is gently uphill for most of its journey Durham: Cathedral and City Centre loop Tellingly, the brochure on line makes no reference to operation by electric vehicles, and the steep hills and narrow streets are a very challenging place to start. Milton Keynes. Route 7. This is the main trunk route through the city to Old Wolverton, and appears to be one of the few places where a random visitor would expect an electric to come.
Italy
- Gruppo Torinese Trasporti -- Turin, Italy
Netherlands
- 43 fully electric VDL 18 meter buses are deployed in Eindhoven, driving a daily distance of 400 km each. The Eindhoven operation is currently the biggest all-electric bus operation of Europe (2017). At the end of 2017, VDL will have a fleet of over 200 fully electric vehicles driving in the Netherlands and Germany, with over 5,000,000 km done and no technical breakdowns.
- 6 all-electric BYD buses in April 2013 on the island of Schiermonnikoog. Right now, there are many electric buses driving in the Netherlands. Starting 11 December 2016, with the new bus schedule for 2017, Hermes started running 43 buses to the bus transport of Eindhoven. Arriva started running 16 electric buses on Vlieland, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog, and several more in Limburg. Utrecht already had electric buses on route 2, and trolley buses have been operating for decades in the city of Arnhem.
Poland
- Kraków (Cracow): In January 2016, first 2 Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses were delivered by Solaris Bus & Coach. In September 2016, further 4 Solaris Urbino 8,9 LE electric buses were delivered by the same manufacturer. A roadside charger was installed at a bus stop on Pawia street.
- Warszawa (Warsaw): In June 2015, Solaris Bus & Coach delivered 10 Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses. They are running on route 222. A further 20 electric buses are on order, first 10, manufactured by Ursus Bus, due to be delivered in summer of 2017 and further 10 Solaris Urbino 12 electrics by end of March 2018. There are also plans to purchase further 130 electric buses by 2020. 19 termini will be equipped with chargers, allowing buses to be topped-up using roof-mounted pantographs.
- Zielona Góra: In October 2017 MZK Zielona Góra order 47 electric buses Ursus City Smile 12E manufactured by Ursus Bus.
- Stalowa Wola: In September 2017 ZMKS Stalowa Wola order 10 electric buses Solaris Urbino 8,9 LE electric manufactured by Solaris Bus & Coach.<
Russia
- In 2014 in Chelyabinsk began to run electric buses (hybrid trolleybus and electric car). Moves up to 30 kilometers on routes unequipped wires to distant parts of the city.
Serbia
- In 2016 GSP Belgrade, the public transport operator of city of Belgrade, launched dedicated electric bus line equipped exclusively with 5 electric buses. The line has a total length of 7.9 kilometres one-way and 13 bus stops.
Spain
- Empresa Malagueña de Transportes (EMT), S.A.M
- Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid 20 all-electric and 20 hybrid diesel-electric buses and since February 2017 one Iziar ie2.
- Councillor for the Environment, Figueres
- León: Minibus Tecnobus Gulliver in El Ejido
- Seville
Sweden
- Västtrafik is running 10 electric Volvo buses in Gothenburg on route 55
- VL is running a fleet of electric Solaris buses in Västerås on route 1 to 7
Switzerland
- transport public genève (tpg) introduce TOSA Flash Mobility, Clean City, Smart Bus a new system of mass transport with electric "flash" recharging of the buses at selected bus stops.
North America
Canada
British Columbia
- Victoria - CVS Tours currently deploys North America's first all-electric double decker bus made by GreenPower Motor Company.
Ontario
- Windsor (BYD)
Québec
- Réseau de transport de la Capitale, Quebec City's public transit authority has integrated 8 electric buses to its fleet in 2008 to serve the Old City. The Tecnobus Gulliver buses can carry up to 20 passengers and runs on $3.25 worth of electricity per day.
- Montreal, bus fleet going all-electric by 2025.
United States
California
There is a Californian mandate (Zero Emission Bus, in short, ZBus) that 15% of new buses after 2011 be electric. The ZBus Regulation is part of the Fleet Rule for Transit Agencies, which is also referred to as the Public Transit Agencies Regulation.
South America
Aruba
- Oranjestad (BYD)
Brazil
- Sao Paulo (BYD)
Chile
- Santiago (BYD)
- Valparaiso (BYD)
Colombia
- Bogota (BYD)
Uruguay
- Montevideo (BYD x 200 vehicles)
See also
References
External links
- Electric buses, Citytransport.
- Electric buses, Clean Air Initiative (CAI), World Bank
- The Electric Tbus Group
- Advanced buses
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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