Ev bus failure

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CKN said:
Yes-and a large facility in Southern California-

In less than a decade, Chinese manufacturer BYD has grown to become the largest battery-electric bus manufacturer in North America.

The company’s California plant is located in Lancaster, at the northern edge of Los Angeles County. Since buying the 106,000-square-foot vacant building that once housed a motorhome manufacturing facility in 2013, it has expanded the facility to over a half-million square feet — about the size of nine American football fields.
https://www.busandmotorcoachnews.com/a-tour-through-byd-electric-bus-plant-in-california/

It could be possible that "the other guys" just makes an inferior product!
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It hasn't been entirely trouble-free, but I think the same can be said for any relatively new product. Around here we got an order for Van Hool transit buses from a Belgian company, and they've been pretty bad with lots of problems including passenger injuries.

It certainly doesn't sound like BYD has been any worse than typical diesel buses. And Gillig is working with Cummins on EV buses.
 
In my school district we have been using only Bluebird EV buses, so far no issues at all. It could be climate and duty cycle specific. Ours pretty much are all short trips 5-10 miles max, plus some local field trip, then they just charge in the yard all day (schools have solar panels on parking lot).

I would imagine the failing ones have harsh winter or summer weather and drained the battery more. I'd stop any presentation as soon as I see 90 days warranty. For something like this they got to be at least 10 years with service contract instead.
 
Number_35 said:
I hope battery-electric buses do work out - they seem to be a perfect fit for the advantages of EVs, and would not be overly disadvantaged by the inherent limitations.
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They actually work well, if you buy the good ones. There are some double deckers I've seen running office shuttles instead of local bus. One round trip per day, parked to charged otherwise. Super low center of gravity helps it from tipping over too I guess?

Bus doesn't usually go that far but does a lot of stop and go. Hybrid bus have been around for a long time, and so are those overhead line powered electric buses. The only challenge is really just scaling up the battery from hybrid to EV, it is not really something new.

Just buy from reputable companies and sign a good contract that has a good warranty.
 
CKN said:
Yes-and a large facility in Southern California-

In less than a decade, Chinese manufacturer BYD has grown to become the largest battery-electric bus manufacturer in North America.

The company’s California plant is located in Lancaster, at the northern edge of Los Angeles County. Since buying the 106,000-square-foot vacant building that once housed a motorhome manufacturing facility in 2013, it has expanded the facility to over a half-million square feet — about the size of nine American football fields.
https://www.busandmotorcoachnews.com/a-tour-through-byd-electric-bus-plant-in-california/

It could be possible that "the other guys" just makes an inferior product!
Click to expand...
China Bangers take note. :D
 
Astro_Guy said:
Methinks that a 90 day warranty should have been a huge warning sign. It seems in this case that a political agenda combined with other people's money drove a manufacturer to build something that they themselves had little confidence in.

Aside from that, a school bus seems like a really good application for an electric vehicle. They don't travel very far. They might only be used 4-6 hours per day, five days per week. They typically have 4-5 hours to charge between the morning an afternoon runs, and they can be charged for upwards of twelve hours overnight. They should make sense once someone figures out how to build them.
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Absolutely right on all counts.
 
PandaBear said:
In my school district we have been using only Bluebird EV buses, so far no issues at all. It could be climate and duty cycle specific. Ours pretty much are all short trips 5-10 miles max, plus some local field trip, then they just charge in the yard all day (schools have solar panels on parking lot).

I would imagine the failing ones have harsh winter or summer weather and drained the battery more. I'd stop any presentation as soon as I see 90 days warranty. For something like this they got to be at least 10 years with service contract instead.
Click to expand...
None of the failures in this fleet have been traction battery failures. Everything's else related, garbage. I will repeat what has been said already, a decent idea but poorly executed.
 
Opelman said:
None of the failures in this fleet have been traction battery failures. Everything's else related, garbage. I will repeat what has been said already, a decent idea but poorly executed.
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This - sadly emotions need to be taken out of this.

Example: We went way overboard with atomic energy. Nearly banning it. Because people were hyped into scared overdrive, rather than overcoming any tech issues and increasing the safety.

Slow roll needs to continue. Figure out the problems. Move forward. It's what we do. Or go back to the cave and shake in our boots.
 
PandaBear said:
They actually work well, if you buy the good ones. There are some double deckers I've seen running office shuttles instead of local bus. One round trip per day, parked to charged otherwise. Super low center of gravity helps it from tipping over too I guess?

Bus doesn't usually go that far but does a lot of stop and go. Hybrid bus have been around for a long time, and so are those overhead line powered electric buses. The only challenge is really just scaling up the battery from hybrid to EV, it is not really something new.

Just buy from reputable companies and sign a good contract that has a good warranty.
Click to expand...
One would think that Cummins and Blue Bird should be reputable companies. I wasn't party to the contract negotiations. I believe that the traction battery itself is still warrantied. I did get to go over and ride in a Thomas/Proterra unit and found the build quality to be sub par also. The one I rather liked was the Lion, it drove well, was put together much better than the others, and they seem to be pretty reliable. Deal killer was the manual cable operated workman's comp inducing parking brake. The state of CA is subsidizing part of the cost of these things so you are kind of stuck with take it or leave it. One size does not fit all. EVs work, Tesla has proven that. Just don't mandate that one has to go electric when it may not be the best option for the need at hand.
 
CKN said:
You know buses that are powered by diesel and gas break down everyday too? Don't you?

I could show you 100's of "public transportation" mistakes made by cities, states, etc. that are all (petro) fuel based.

"Agenda post".
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Especially the diesel ones with emissions BS on them. I fully expect an EV bus to be more reliable than an electronic emissions nightmare diesel.
 
My 2 cents; political agenda commentary/rebuttals and overall 'ecological wisdom' assessments aside.

There's nothing wrong with developing electric vehicles. It's that posturing and selling are involved. Engineers and designers should be improving things along the way. Steady development and improvements will displace foolish, backwards looking arguments.

As mentioned above, it's not the "go parts" of these machines but the silly, ancillary stuff which fail. It stinks that various control systems (one company's SCM) or super touch screens have to be individualized for each manufacturer. Having to make essentially experimental vehicles appear to be finished examples of industrial design is wasteful.

And a third cent, if I may. Any company which buys expensive, newly designed machinery with a 90 day warranty is stupid, stupid, stupid.
 
You know, funny you mention that, the newest diesel Navistar buses in the fleet are Cummins powered and reliability is compromised due to the emissions system. Usually it is the DEF sensor package failing. At least there is a software workaround that prevents the vehicle from going into limp mode. The DEF system still works but the catalyst level, temp, and quality sensors are ignored.
 
Kira said:
My 2 cents; political agenda commentary/rebuttals and overall 'ecological wisdom' assessments aside.

There's nothing wrong with developing electric vehicles. It's that posturing and selling are involved. Engineers and designers should be improving things along the way. Steady development and improvements will displace foolish, backwards looking arguments.

As mentioned above, it's not the "go parts" of these machines but the silly, ancillary stuff which fail. It stinks that various control systems (one company's SCM) or super touch screens have to be individualized for each manufacturer. Having to make essentially experimental vehicles appear to be finished examples of industrial design is wasteful.

And a third cent, if I may. Any company which buys expensive, newly designed machinery with a 90 day warranty is stupid, stupid, stupid.
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You are so correct.
 
y_p_w said:
Early adopters often serve as testbeds for quality control improvements. More recent production has been far more reliable.
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Reliable in a 1950’s VW sort of way

Incidents are far above a normal big 3 car maker and are still niche market components.
 
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