[HN Gopher] New electric school bus has a 300-mile range
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New electric school bus has a 300-mile range
Author : ashitlerferad
Score : 11 points
Date : 2023-11-15 19:07 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (electrek.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (electrek.co)
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| On the one hand, it sure seems like most school buses should only
| need 100 mi a day or hopefully less. This seems gigantic for the
| need.
|
| On the other hand, a bus that did have to travel >200mi a day
| would have emitted proportionally more pollution than a shorter
| range bus! Targeting longer routes makes sense!
| benj111 wrote:
| What's the length of a school run though? This could do 75
| miles each way, twice a day without charging.
|
| But the bus isn't used for most of the day, so you could
| realistically halve that range anyway.
|
| And I doubt any bus routes are that long anyway.
|
| And what's with the name mega BEAST? Is it going to get my kids
| safely to school, or eat them?
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/60068.pdf ("A Statistical
| Characterization of School Bus Drive Cycles Collected via
| Onboard Logging Systems")
| anonymouskimmer wrote:
| > Of the over 1,500 individual operating shifts analyzed as
| part of this study, the average driving distance observed
| was 31.73 miles, with a maximum observed driving distance
| of 127.36 miles and a minimum distance of 1.45 miles.
| Calculating the set standard deviation, sigma was found to
| be 15.17 miles. Again assuming normality based on the
| driving distance distribution, a 99.7% confidence interval
| on route distance was determined and found to be zero to
| 77.23 miles. Similarly to route duration, doubling the
| route distance to reflect daily operating distances, it is
| found that on average school buses travel 73.46 miles, with
| a 99.7% cutoff on driving distance of 154.46 miles.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| That'll do Beast bus, that'll do.
| anonymouskimmer wrote:
| This makes a lot of sense for school buses that are used for
| trips, but less so for the majority of school buses. I'd say
| it'd even be worth it to charter a non-school bus for longer
| trips.
|
| Where this might make sense is in charging infrastructure for
| school bus fleets, where they are all on the road for
| particular parts of the day and all parked for other particular
| parts of the day. A larger battery would ease scheduling of
| charging by allowing it to happen only every few days (though
| the tradeoff being that a larger battery needs longer to
| charge).
| barryrandall wrote:
| I'm assuming that, like all other EVs, range plummets with the
| heat running.
| landemva wrote:
| This is correct.
|
| Heat for battery in cold climates. Heat and cooling for
| passengers.
| Arnt wrote:
| At 150mph that's a one-hour trip to school and one hour back
| home. Is the manufacturer a subsidiary of Ferrari, by any chance?
| pedalpete wrote:
| I've often wondered why the first use of electric and autonomous
| driving isn't the courtesy busses at airports.
|
| They don't drive far, they don't drive fast, they run the same
| route again and again.
|
| I'm not suggesting someone start with LAX, but if you look at San
| Diego, there is one pick-up point for all car rental locations.
| I'm not sure if hotels are the same.
| bhhaskin wrote:
| As far as electric goes I would imagine that it's is likely due
| to the fact they run all the time. It's a lot faster to fill
| them up with fuel than charge them. You would have to keep a
| spear or two just to rotate while they charge. And even though
| they don't go far in a single trip, I can see it adding up
| quickly enough to be an issue. But I bet they start getting
| replaced soon as the older vehicles reach their end of service
| life.
|
| As for autonomous vehicles go you would think we would start
| with trains.
| audunw wrote:
| In a place like an airport, since the infrastructure is
| completely fixed and used every day, it'd be quite easy to do
| a battery swapping solution. Would potentially be faster than
| filling gas.
| landemva wrote:
| > it'd be quite easy
|
| Is that speculation, or are you a bus mechanic?
| landemva wrote:
| Municipal bus lines are keeping spare busses so some can
| always be charging. And the batteries need to be kept warm
| (for range) so busses are getting five gallon diesel tank and
| small diesel engine to warm the coolant which is piped around
| the batteries.
|
| On a fixed route where one organization owns the place, the
| sane solution is overhead electric cables.
| 4death4 wrote:
| Overhead cables probably wouldn't work well at an airport.
| someplaceguy wrote:
| > As for autonomous vehicles go you would think we would
| start with trains.
|
| We did: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Island_Line
| Symbiote wrote:
| A new design, yet it still has steps to climb to get in, and a
| high windscreen.
|
| An ordinary European bus has at most one step for the rear half
| of the bus, and has a low windscreen so the driver can see
| children passing in front of the bus. Asian designs are similar.
|
| Example: https://www.mercedes-benz-
| bus.com/en_DE/models/citaro.html
| 4death4 wrote:
| I think that might just be an illusion. The dimensions of a
| Citaro and a school bus are roughly the same.
| meristohm wrote:
| That's a win for air quality, for one.
| sciencesama wrote:
| Just one of the bus needs to catch on fire before all of those
| get recalled !!
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