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Electric Bus Sets Record With 1,101-Mile Trip On a Single Charge (engadget.com)

A startup called Proterra has set the world record for the furthest distance any electric vehicle has managed before recharging. The Catalyst E2 Max electric bus drove 1,101.2 miles on a single charge, beating the previous record-holder, a one-seat experimental car nicknamed "Boozer." Engadget reports: Not surprisingly, a bus can hold a much larger battery than just about any regular car. The Catalyst E2 Max carries 660kWh, or nearly nine times the capacity of a 75kWh Tesla Model S. Also, Proterra was driving in optimal conditions, with no passengers, no stops and a gentle test track. It'd be another story with a fully-laden bus wending its way through a city. Even so, that kind of range is very promising. In many cases, it could likely handle a long bus route for several hours -- it might only need to recharge at the end of a driver's shift. While it could take an hour or more to top up even with Proterra's fast charging system, bus drivers are no strangers to changing vehicles. The first E2 series buses are due to reach Los Angeles streets later in 2017, so it might not be long before you can witness this longevity first-hand. The company released a video of the record-setting feat on YouTube.

27 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No passengers, no stops, on a gentle test track by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes it's not as interesting as having a benchmark of how it will perform in a real-world situation, but it is at least useful in comparing it against other vehicles assuming that they were also tested in a similar way as you can get an idea of relative performance gains.

    They probably have done some more realistic simulations where they have weighted dummies loaded on the bus and make periodic starts and stops to simulating running an actual route. This test is done purely for marketing purposes though, as 1,101 miles sounds a lot more impressive and is going to get more people talking about it than if they did a more realistic simulation.

  2. This would kick ass with regenerative braking by fourfaces · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With good regenerative braking, adding passengers would not shorten the range too much.

  3. Public Buses are different by no-body · · Score: 2

    since their ownership is less diverse.
    Having battery-packs fully charged at at bus depot and then a system where they can be swapped out quickly for recharged one's.
    Until personal cars will have such a system - forget it!

    1. Re:Public Buses are different by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sure, cities will have no problem buying enough busses to have two charging for every one on the road. Why don't people think things through?

      There was a time when practically every big city in the US had an all-electric public transportation system. And it was profitable. It was killed off by a conspiracy involving Rockefeller, Standard Oil and General Motors. They were even convicted of the conspiracy in court.

      http://americanhistory.oxfordr...

      https://www.theguardian.com/ci...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Public Buses are different by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      The system for personal cars is pretty obvious, charging points in every carpark, even public street parking. Think of them as all points of revenue. So your town has a parking metre in the street, well, make it into a charge point and charge more, heh heh. Supermarket carpark instead of being a loss beyond attracting customers (there are a reason carparks are in the front of stores and not the back and note, if the store was near the street they could advertise product much more readily), add in charging in every car park and make money when ever people stop. So charging points could be everywhere cars park, not rapid charge stations but top up charge, either they charge or they provide it free to attract more people. The cost for it would be much lower than people think and the revenue over time would be pretty much guaranteed. Suck it up, the infernal combustion engine is reaching EOL and with it fossil fuels, regardless of how much those psychopaths spend feeding their greed whilst parasitically destroying out societies.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    3. Re:Public Buses are different by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Until personal cars will have such a system - forget it!

      Why? A modern fast charger will give you close to a full charge in just double the average time it takes already to fill up at a gas station.

      And you rarely if ever need a full charge to get to where you're going. If you're doing a road trip you may actually want to spend longer than 10min at the charger too. Your kids are probably screaming at you that they are hungry.

    4. Re:Public Buses are different by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Er, no. Filling my old car with petrol took 5 minutes (give or take). Filling my Leaf to 80% from zero takes about 30 minutes. It can take longer when it's too cold or too hot.

      I'm pro-EV but we need to be honest with people how it all works. Rapid charging time is not likely to drop significantly.

    5. Re:Public Buses are different by bgarcia · · Score: 2

      It only takes me about 5 minutes to fill up at a gas station. That will give my car 300-400 miles of additional range.

      Supercharging a Tesla takes 20-30 minutes, and will only get you about 200 miles of additional range.

      We're not there yet. Elon Musk has hinted at much faster superchargers in the near future, but right now it's not comparable. It makes long distance travel *possible*, but it's not yet as convenient as in a combustion vehicle.

      --
      I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
    6. Re:Public Buses are different by jabuzz · · Score: 2

      This bus did over 1000 miles on a single charge. The *AVERAGE* bus does about 100 miles a day. This is not a bus replacement more an intercity coach replacement.

      In bus mode there is no need whatsoever for replacing the battery packs anywhere provided you can charge them up overnight. The need to use an internal combustion engine in a "bus" has been obsoleted for some time now.

      In the UK the longest journey you can make without starting to drive around in circles to deliberately taking longer diversions is the "Lands End to John O'Groats" trip which is a mere 840 miles and that will take you 15 hours. So this "coach" will comfortably manage that trip on a single charge.

    7. Re:Public Buses are different by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Er, no.

      Given I work at a company that has actual statistics on how long each customer spends in the forecourt I will counter with Er, Yes.

      I'm pro-EV but we need to be honest with people how it all works. Rapid charging time is not likely to drop significantly.

      Yes, I guess the fact that your Leaf isn't compatible with a modern fast chargers, and the fact that Porsche already has installed, Telsla has already demonstrated and is installing, and a EU consortium is planning to roll out 400 chargers which are well over double the fastest thing Telsa currently has on the market means that nothing will change. Good to know.

    8. Re:Public Buses are different by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      It only takes me about 5 minutes to fill up at a gas station. That will give my car 300-400 miles of additional range.
      Supercharging a Tesla takes 20-30 minutes, and will only get you about 200 miles of additional range.
      We're not there yet. Elon Musk has hinted at much faster superchargers in the near future, but right now it's not comparable. It makes long distance travel *possible*, but it's not yet as convenient as in a combustion vehicle.

      The average person spends more than 5 minutes in the forecourt.
      EV charging is not primarily done at the station. Stations are for top-ups and destinations. If your Tesla spends more than 20min at a supercharger in Europe that means you're doing an international roadtrip. For the few minutes extra you'll always get to your destination as is currently. But the Tesla is also not the fastest charging system out there, and Telsa themselves have already teased a charger with more than double the power output currently available. Porsche has already installed such chargers.

      We're not there yet.

      We are. People just think that an EV needs to cover every single possible conceivable scenario but don't actually apply the same restriction to their own car. 99% of the population could switch now to EVs without issue. You just fell into a similar trap when you quoted how much range you get when you fill up. You don't need 400miles of range off a single fillup, you just need enough to get home where the majority of EV charging takes place.

  4. It seems really impressive until by DesertNomad · · Score: 5, Funny

    you realize it's in binary

  5. Re:Public BusesTes are different by no-body · · Score: 2

    Tesla can quick swap.

    Workshop pit with very specialized equipment, not doable across different car brands and on the road.
    Buses could load from the side with a modified forklift and one type of battery pack if ... people would be able to design and agree...
     

  6. idling and braking by Jodka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Electric buses are not particularly better than diesels on non-stop trips but have a great advantage in stop-and-go driving, so the summary is kind of odd how it plays those advantages up and down the other way around. I guess the point is that electrics are catching up on range now also.

    With conventional busses, every stop to pick up or drop off passengers means more brake wear. Brakes are ablative and a big maintenance expense. Also, the bus is always idling and consuming fuel whether it is moving or not in stop-and-go traffic. In comparison, Electric buses use regenerative breaking and do not idle, advantages over diesels which increase with more frequent stops to pickup/drop off passengers and at intersections in the city. Neither of those special advantages come into play in one long, straight, uninterrupted drive; it's the comparison which shows the diesel bus at its relative best.

    So busses are a special case which make electrics especially advantageous. In fact, projections are that for shuttle busses at airports, which drive short cyclical routes, even super capacitors would be practical; Because the route is a short cycle, even with a low charge capacity, the bus passes the charger before the capacitor depletes. Charging is almost instant and can occur when the vehicle is otherwise stopped at the terminal to drop off/pickup passengers, adding no additional delay. Also, the number of charger cycles of a super capacitor is much higher than a lithium battery.

    --
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    1. Re:idling and braking by Ichijo · · Score: 4, Informative

      You are referring to a Capabus.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    2. Re:idling and braking by blindseer · · Score: 2

      With conventional buses there is no method to refuel while the bus is en route. Not that it needs it, a typical bus does not seem to stop for fuel often. An electric bus could be recharged with overhead wires along common routes and/or stops. That should make the bus more viable and not add too much to the expense or limit it's ability to change routes to match traveler's needs, traffic patterns, construction, etc. An electric trolley is a common sight still in some cities, and I recall that in those cities they've adapted hybrid buses to use those overhead lines to reduce fuel use. These buses have no electric storage, they just use the electric drive when traveling on a route shared with a street trolley.

      If there are buses, for example, used as an airport shuttle service then the overhead charging lines can be at the airport terminal. Every time it is stopped at the terminal to wait for loading and unloading passengers it can be recharging. Once it runs it's loop around the parking lot, or to and from a hotel, and returns it can run on battery.

      If capacitors work better then batteries in this case then use them. Perhaps a combination of capacitors and batteries would work. Point is that if the bus has a ready recharge point that coincides with a stop to load and unload passengers then the range can be improved without as many batteries than would be needed to do an "off line" recharge at a bus corral at the end of the day.

      Driving around an empty parking lot while not carrying any people or luggage means it's not really been tested. In a real world there will likely have to be a way to charge the battery, or at least allow to run on a "third rail" so the battery isn't drained in that time.

      I've seen the math and electric vehicles are suitable to a quite narrow set of applications. Overhead lines for buses would seem a minimal set of infrastructure needed to expand the usefulness of the vehicles, especially where they already exist in some form. I just wonder if some freeloader type might modify a car to tap into that.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    3. Re:idling and braking by PoopJuggler · · Score: 2

      Electric buses are not particularly better than diesels

      The problem with you humans is that you only consider things "better" if they benefit yourselves. Electrics are better because they don't pollute the environment for every single other living creature on the planet.

  7. Re:No passengers, no stops, on a gentle test track by AvitarX · · Score: 2

    I wonder what the real world is, because even half that should be enough for a city bus (500 miles = 20 hours at 25 mph). For a long haul bus, 12 @ 50 maye? = 600 miles (no idea the average greyhound speed, but 12 hours is a driver max shift I think).

    for a long haul bus, a 1 hour stop (alleged charge time) every chunk of time less than 12 hours is reasonable too.

    I have no idea how this transforms into real world, but it's very promising I think, people don't weigh that much compared to a bus.

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  8. Re:No passengers, no stops, on a gentle test track by Barsteward · · Score: 2

    But is it any difference to the tricks the fossil car makers use to get their unrealistic non-real world MPG figures? Taping up gaps, removing seats, using thinner tyres etc

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  9. Re:No passengers, no stops, on a gentle test track by 91degrees · · Score: 2

    It's still good enough to make it viable. A bus will do a fraction of that in a day. A sample bus route is 20km long, takes 100 minutes, and has a 20 minute rest at the end. So that's 2 hours. In an 18 hour day, that's 360km. Even with passengers and stop-start it might do that on a single charge. If not, we can top up in those 20 minute breaks.

  10. Re:Slow bus, low air resistance by deviated_prevert · · Score: 2

    "No passengers, no stops, on a gentle test track"

    Notice how slowly the bus was moving in the video? Presumably to save on air resistance.

    I wonder what the range will be at normal city speeds.

    The test was done the same way that GM, Ford, Chrysler, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and all the other auto makers arrive at their best case scenario sticker advertised MPG ratings. The real problem lies in getting all the fat car addicted traffic jams of commuters to use public transportation thus freeing up room in the cities so that we don't have to pave every piece of land for roads and parking to accommodate the ever increasing numbers of personal autos in cities.

    China banning the sale of ICE vehicles is a sign of what is to come. But most Americans in a phony claim of personal freedom choose to ignore the fact that very real freedoms have been usurped by an addiction to the personal automobile. As I go out to the sieben/elf to get more smokes and potato chips while I burn off more gas instead of just walking 5 blocks! YES we (self included) are a hypocritical bunch of morons. But we are slowly but surely paying the price for our collective stupidity. That price is the real cost of automobiles run amok and a people who are too stupefied and blinded by the head lights to see the real freedoms that alternatives could bring.

    --
    This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
  11. Re:Srsly, buses are the worst... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Informative

    Honestly, this infatuation with buses has me a bit baffled.

    Perhaps it's from people who live in cities with functioning bus systems. I do. The city in question is called "london". I don't know if you call 6.5 million journeys per day infatuation, but I call that "working".

    Sure, they do a great job of moving lots of people from point A to point B, but everyone seems to forget to take the actual consumer participation factor out of account.

    Well, the nominal population of London is 8.7 million, so the bus system averages a little under one journey per person per day. Which is pretty good.

    anecdote about your city to match my anecdote

    Perhaps your city sucks at public transport. Maybe you don't have a well integrated transport system. Maybe you have too few busses, or not enough priority given to them. Perhaps they're too expensive, too infrequent or too unreliable. However the fact that London has a working system is an existence proof that shows a working system is perfectly possible. London is not unique in this regard either.

    The problem is not with busses, the problem is with your city. I for one welcome electric busses because they don't spew wretched diesel fumes all over the place.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  12. Re:Slow bus, low air resistance by inflex · · Score: 2

    There's never a break even for ICEs; at least once you start using an electric car your CO2 footprint is relatively reducing compared to similar ICE, even if you're using dirty power.

    Coal power stations are being phased out (gas turbine does still have a presence for the next few years as a fast response base load assist), eventually there'll be a greater utilisation of direct solar panel / wind turbine to car charging cycle and I won't be surprised if cars perform a secondary function as a large power storage system ( even though there'll be a lot of movements, overall there'll be a lot of parked cars at any given moment ) to deal with the greater level of unpredictability associated with our current green-energy sources.

    It's like the old complaint that solar panels used more power to produce than they ever yield, that became invalid about 20 years ago (we're now at about 4~5x return). Things get better, old inefficiencies are removed. In another 20 years we'll look back and wonder why everyone was freaking out so much.

  13. Re:Slow bus, low air resistance by Barsteward · · Score: 2

    "The extra CO2 released during production of an electric car versus its ICE alternative is the same amount of CO2 the average ICE user releases over 7 years" why did you forget to mention the amount of CO2 released during the production of an ICE and not add it to the comparison (plus all the CO2 released in fossil fuel extraction, transportation and refinement)?

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  14. Laden electric bus by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 2

    What is your name?
    What is your quest?
    What is the range and velocity of a laden electric bus?

  15. Re:No passengers, no stops, on a gentle test track by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

    Yes, but Jesus loves the internal combustion engine, and it is from Satan that electric vehicles arise. Remember the 11th Commandment; "Thou shalt have no other motive energy force than fossil fuels, so sayeth the Lord."

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  16. Re:Srsly, buses are the worst... by jabuzz · · Score: 2

    Right because most mid sized cities in the UK all have functioning bus systems. That is assuming midsize is from say 300,000 plus.