Trolley buses are a weird niche. They require permanent overhead cable infrastructure like trams do but don’t have the other benefits of trams - low rolling resistance and no tyre pollution. I figure if you’re going to install a trolley bus route you probably might as well install rail at the same time and get the benefits of trams. (Streetcars for the North Americans out there)
Comment on The first EV with a lithium-free sodium battery hits the road in January
kameecoding@lemmy.world 10 months agoHope they simply bought trolley buses and didn’t waste money on battery buses
It’s such a waste to put batteries in inner city buses
zik@lemmy.world 10 months ago
filister@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Actually electric buses make a lot more sense, as the utilisation and environmental impact would be much greater compared to normal EV cars.
Plus you are conveniently omitted mentioning the energy losses of the cables, the maintenance cost, the installation cost, etc.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 10 months ago
id be genuinely surprised if the energy losses of the cables are more than the energy losses of charging the batteries even if they are they are more than likely offset by the weight difference of batteries vs the weight of the cable connecting mechanism.
Then there is the issue of range and the uptime of the vehicles while you can use a trolley 24/7 you have to charge the bev buses
Then there is the issue of extreme weather cold or hot where due to AC and or heating and the temperature itself affects the range a lot
Then there are the maintenance costs of the battery the power capacity since you need space for the batteries
So all in all you exchange a bunch of negatives for the benefit of not needing overhead cables
A trolley with a small built in battery for those last few miles you might need to connect but don’t want to pull cables is the best of both worlds.
Hope that was a comprehensive enough dismantling.
filister@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Source for your claims?
Plus do you know how expensive it is to support the whole cable infrastructure, including personnel salaries, etc. I am not convinced your math is right, but feel free to prove me wrong.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 10 months ago
What do you think cables are made of? Gold? Lol
What do you think is more expensive maintaining the cable infrastructure or the road surfaces under the extra heavy buses?
Here is a good youtube video on the issue
flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
My city recently decided to pull down the existing overhead cable network in favour of ‘local’ batteries in buses (was aging and needed a lot of maintenance which they were allergic to)
Unfortunately, that doesn’t really argue either way, as same city is now seeing the issues of not maintaining it’s water infrastructure for the last recent decades… They do some dumb shit
ExLisper@linux.community 10 months ago
Yeah, and the cables would install themselves automatically.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 10 months ago
That’s better than the buses breaking down.
youtu.be/B78-FgNqdc8?si=1dMORMc1EYhA6abL
ExLisper@linux.community 10 months ago
Sorry but youtube experts and their google research are not a reliable source of information for me. It’s entertaining but it’s the last thing I would base city planning on.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Lol