For those questioning the feasibility, 100% electric school buses are already on the road in Montreal. I see them frequently, and they seem to handle our crappy roads and winters fine.
US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
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Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#112I still don't get that TCO for EV is higher than Diesel. On the consumer side, let's look at Tesla Model Y vs. Lexus RX 350. I am using "premium" makes on both sides of this equations. If we want to go with a cheaper ICE then it should be compared with a cheaper EV. Idea being, there is a reasonable comparison where EV comes out ahead on TCO. Cost / mile: $0.04 vs. $0.10 Difference in purchase cost: $55K (base model…
A tesla won't get the tax credit any more (they've sold too many cars). Unless that's changed with one of the covid packages.
Doubt it. Whenever EVs have been mentioned, it has been specifically about union shops. Tesla does not have a union so they are evil.
Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the '90s the dairy industry managed to get "got milk" posters into approximately every US elementary school.
Milk was my one true vice. Swear the stuff is more addictive them anything. Yes I’m boring. Spent many years thinking it was healthy. Much regret.
I always found it sort of disgusting, but as an adult discovered that 1 tablespoon of Valhrona powdered cocoa, 1 tablespoon of Equal Exchange baking cocoa and 2 tablespoons of sugar in 1.75 cups of grass-fed organic whole milk deals with the bad part.
Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#114A better alternative is the trolley bus, no batteries needed. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-51034523
that's excellent for city busses that run all day with good frequency, but I would not say so for school busses, whose reason to exist is to collect students that live far away from the school for one specific commute only. Should the municipality really build out overhead powerlines for 20 miles of cornfields just for one passenger needing only 2 trips per day, possibly less if that student has after-school activities?
Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is your truck? RAM 3500s with Cummins diesels come in 7000lb configurations, but we're talking ~15mpg, nowhere close to a countryman.
My 03 Ram 2500 gets 24 MPG
That's incredible. https://www.fuelly.com/car/dodge/ram_2500/2003
Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#116Cheaper for the school districts themselves maybe. I’d like to see an honest article that included the overall cost to taxpayers as well.
Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#117For those curious about EV bus including maintenance vs diesel EEVBlog has one episode on a private company switching to EV:
Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#118Apparently there's an important patent on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries that expires next month (on April 27th). I'm hoping that changes the economics on batteries and that LFPs become cheap and abundant, and widely available from a variety of manufacturers that aren't located in China. LFP seems like the obvious choice for large vehicles like buses unless there's some reason to really need to optimize for r…
LiFePo batteries are already getting produced in huge numbers in China and are very cheap even here in the west. Could the Chinese LiFePo products legally be imported if they were using patented tech? Or is it a specific variation of LiFePo that is patented, and could make the batteries better?
Because at 150-250$/kWh retail price it's going to be extremely hard for local manufacturers to compete in the market against established Chinese manufacturers that can already make state of the art, high quality batteries at insane volumes.
Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#119The secondary costs of running a diesel fleet are also huge! Diesel motors generate a substantial amount of fine particulate that is unhealthy for anybody, and particularly unhealthy for children. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC121970/ Even if an electric fleet is the same cost, changing over would save tons of money and alleviate tons of suffering. It's the right thing to do for any ethical reason you…
(Disclaimer: have driven pure electric for going on 7.5 years) It may be more complex: electricity generation is very dirty in some regions, such as where coal is burned. Is it more dirty than diesel emissions? I have no idea, but old diesels were nasty.
Engineering Explained did the math: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RhtiPefVzM
Spoiler: Well-to-wheels, BEV cars are better than the best gas cars (top end prius) even if the source electricity is 100% coal.
The best is still not driving, but it's a step in the right direction.
Re: US schools can subscribe to an electric bus fleet at lower prices than diesel
#120The secondary costs of running a diesel fleet are also huge! Diesel motors generate a substantial amount of fine particulate that is unhealthy for anybody, and particularly unhealthy for children. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC121970/ Even if an electric fleet is the same cost, changing over would save tons of money and alleviate tons of suffering. It's the right thing to do for any ethical reason you…
(Disclaimer: have driven pure electric for going on 7.5 years) It may be more complex: electricity generation is very dirty in some regions, such as where coal is burned. Is it more dirty than diesel emissions? I have no idea, but old diesels were nasty.
> Is it more dirty than diesel emissions? I have no idea, but old diesels were nasty.
When comparing old diesels to old coal power plants the power plants win by being more efficient but both belch out a lot of pollution. They also have the advantage of burning coal, a fuel which is available in abundance and does not need as much processing as crude oil does to be used in diesel engines.
When comparing old diesels to modern coal power plants this is true at an even higher level since those modern power plants filter out fly ash and are more efficient.
When comparing modern diesels to old coal-fired power plants the diesels win by being less polluting and possibly on terms of efficiency.
Modern diesels versus modern coal power plants goes to the power plants again since these win on terms of efficiency - especially when using combined heat & power - over the diesels.