Lion plant struggling

[JHZR2]

Virginia Beach has about 1,000 buses (might be 800, or 900, but the rough number is about right) and has acquired 6 electric busses through a pilot program with Dominion Power (the local electric utility).

Not a big percentage, but an experiment. The Thomas-built electric busses cost about $370,000 vs. about $120,000 for diesel, but the utility is subsidizing the experiment, so the cost to the taxpayer is the same.

I think the duty cycle of the school bus fleet is perfect for electric - a bus runs for about 90 minutes in the morning, and 90 minutes in the afternoon. Lots of time for charging back at the bus lot. Further, all the stop and go with regenerative braking is a real use of electric.

Time will tell what the fleet experiment yields - but as a taxpayer, if this saves us money in fuel and maintenance - I’m in.

It will be interesting to see how that turns out. Decent climate to get a bit of everything…

I guess children breathing diesel fumes while at the school doesn’t figure into some people ROI.

I love my diesels, but honestly thst would be the biggest win.

Took until the late 90s for my little district to get a diesel bus. The town had a ford and Chevy big block. Both gas engines. Long busses. Noisy whining transmissions. We’re late 80s models.

I hate school busses in general. But I’d hate more for my kids to be subjected to fumes for hours each day…

 

[97prizm]

Well honestly barely anyone lives in Iceland. 80% of the population lives in one area and the population of less than 350,000 is less than that Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island, NY
I only bring this up as we (sometimes me too) forget the population and landmass of the USA when comparing to many other countries.

Interesting read though, as long as we remember that the population of Iceland doesnt even make up 0% of the world population
7% of its cars are electric and 7% hybrid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_Iceland

This! There are more cars in California than the entire UK combined.