Live data from Hacker News

Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

electrek.co

41–50 of 77 posts

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#41
post #25

Living in Shenzhen, it feels like probably 80% of the taxis are electric already. Due to government subsidy the blue electric BYD cabs are more spacious, cheaper (no 2元 fuel surcharge), newer and cleaner than the older red cabs, which are generally clunky dirty squashed VWs. However, the drivers pay more to buy them even with subsidy, and you need a conventional ICE vehicle to get out to the factories in Dongguan, or…

Shenzen / Hong Kong will be the next Silicon Valley.

Hong Kong maybe. The great firewall is really the party shooting itself in the foot.

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#42
post #14

The low-speed maglevs being built in China seem a little more interesting. https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/construction-low-speed-magl... Getting people from point A to B faster on mass transit will get them out of cars and cabs.

Don't believe anybody trying to sell you a Gadgetbahn

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#43
post #33

Why is the US not investing in these kinds of infrastructure build outs? I’m not trying to start a flame war, I’m generally curious. I understand the path dependence that, for example, made the US adopt mobile phones much later than everybody else (a modern and high quality wire plant that wasn’t yet amortized). Things like that make things like train networks hard to build too. But bus fleets turn over relatively qu…

The U.S. legislative system has to cater to everyone's interests. Which is not bad per se, but when it comes to something like this, new environmental laws will always hollow out an entire industry. No matter what new enforcement they try to enact, there'll always be someone powerful lobbying against it.

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#45
post #8

Is the grid in Shenzhen mostly coal-powered?

As is customary in these discussions, the "Long Tailpipe" idea has been raised again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_long_tailpipe

http://www.casteyanqui.com/ev/longtailpipe/

Mr Musk's criticism of it is in here https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-j... Section starting "Power Plant Emissions aka “The Long Tailpipe”"

Chinese electricity might be dirty today, but if they're willing to transform the busses, what makes you think that the grid power will stay unchanged?

Solar energy is becoming cheaper every year, becoming competitive with coal even without taking emissions problems into account. And where are those solar panels manufactured again?

And if they stay with some coal generation, I found these on google very quickly:

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/china-cleans-up-its-act-5... https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/5/15/1563453...

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#47
post #13
post #6

Denver bought a bunch of electric busses from BYD for service on the 16th street mall. My understanding is BYD offered a 12 year warranty on the batteries, in order to make the economics work.

Stanford electric buses are BYD. It is right under the nose of Tesla :) (on the med school route the buses even pass right by the Tesla headquarters)

They accelerate quite nicely, so it's not so bad to be stuck behind one.

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#48
post #41
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shenzen / Hong Kong will be the next Silicon Valley.

Hong Kong maybe. The great firewall is really the party shooting itself in the foot.

The Chinese market is big enough to build very successful companies that never need to cross the firewall to provide their services.

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#49
post #33

Why is the US not investing in these kinds of infrastructure build outs? I’m not trying to start a flame war, I’m generally curious. I understand the path dependence that, for example, made the US adopt mobile phones much later than everybody else (a modern and high quality wire plant that wasn’t yet amortized). Things like that make things like train networks hard to build too. But bus fleets turn over relatively qu…

All sorts of bitter griping in response. They are doing exactly what you suggest: https://www.afdc.energy.gov/data/10302

Re: Shenzhen Electrifies Entire Public Transit Bus Fleet

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buses don't need huge batteries for their size. A typical city bus goes only about 100 miles a day, they do a ton of regenerative breaking, and they can charge at stops and also they tend to sit in the terminal several times a day while the driver takes a break after each circuit. Electric trash collection trucks are even better. That's because they do so much regenerative breaking.

Regenerative braking doesn't do much for someone who already throttles properly. Garbage trucks dont have to drive in traffic. They dont get free energy for regen breaking..its just a recoup for bad driving conditions.

Were I live buses do drive in traffic.
Post reply on HN