[sgiitk]

Good to see a start being made. Also, Himachal taking the lead is good, since a responsible first mover has many advantages. A lot is riding on the first crop of vehicles.

[extreme_torque]

If the regenrative braking is good, the bus should actually charge itself while coming down from Rohtang instead of using electricity. Positive move but I wish the government improved the road conditions before anything else. Has anyone estimated how much poor roads and fuel cost the environment?

[sreeharipv]

True! It can practically start with an 'empty tank' at the top of the hill and can have some 'fuel' left in the 'tank' by the time it reaches foothills all without belching smoke. And the torque motors and shiftless power delivery should make it a delight on the way up for the driver and the passengers.

Way to go. Can't wait for the day when we don't have diesel guzzlers on our street no more.

[ssambyal1980]

Originally Posted by smartcat

I hope this baby has enough juice to get to Rohtang Pass & back. The occasional traffic jams on road to Rohtang is likely to cause some serious anxiety to the bus driver!

Valid concern sir but nonetheless off late the traffic congestion problem has eased to a large extent on the Manali-Rohtang stretch, courtesy the order issue by NGT limiting the number of vehicles reaching Rohtang daily. A checkpoint has been established at Gulaba about 12 km ahead of Manali, wherein congestion tax is levied from the motorists headed to Rohtang for sightseeing. Despite some narrow stretches remaining the majority portion of the road has been widened by the BRO.

Originally Posted by mn2363

Had seen this bus being trialled locally in Chandigarh. Hope they replace the current Tata MarcoPolo diesel ones soon-ish, quite a noise racket and smoke billowing machines they are! And wasn't Tata also doing something with electric buses, I think it was in T-BHP News a while back.

Couldn't agree more. Being in the list of smart cities, Chandigarh is the perfect candidate for a complete change over from diesel run local bus fleet to electric buses. It will definitely go a long way in further reducing the pollution levels. Also not to miss there is an urgent need to bring in the electric autos too as this very lot of transportation also contributes substantially towards city's pollution levels. With electric bus trials being underway and with ample revenue at its disposal the administration should speed up the matters to achieve the desired goals. Hope that the needful is done at the earliest.

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Electric buses will be hit with drivers on the mountains. The torque from 0 rpm will be a boon. Also, the bus seems equipped with lots of safety features including auto braking, ABS and rear view camera.

I remember reading a test report about efficiency of electric trucks/buses - link - the results:

Definitely, with powerful traction motors and a host of safety features at disposal, the drivers can breath easy on narrow and zigzag mountain roads.

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Good to see a start being made. Also, Himachal taking the lead is good, since a responsible first mover has many advantages. A lot is riding on the first crop of vehicles.

Absolutely Sir, the initiator has the advantage. With the bus fleet out for action, the state transport department will get ample experience which will immensely help its other counterparts. Nonetheless glitches too will crop up with the buses being subjected to grueling runs day by day.

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

If the regenrative braking is good, the bus should actually charge itself while coming down from Rohtang instead of using electricity.

Yes, with the return trip from Rohtang to Manali being a continuous descent wherein the altitude changes from 3,978 meters at Rohtang to 2,050 meters at Manali, there is ample scope for regenerative braking which can prolong the driving range of the buses.

Originally Posted by sreeharipv

True! It can practically start with an 'empty tank' at the top of the hill and can have some 'fuel' left in the 'tank' by the time it reaches foothills all without belching smoke. And the torque motors and shiftless power delivery should make it a delight on the way up for the driver and the passengers.Way to go. Can't wait for the day when we don't have diesel guzzlers on our street no more.

Absolutely, with ever rising pollution levels in the cities, the pressing need of the times is to have all electric local bus fleets to make the cities breathable again.

[AVIS]

These buses were recently delivered to BEST, and will shortly be introduced into service. These are non-a/c electric, and Goldstone claims an operating cost of 8 per km vs. 15 per km for CNG buses. Would be interesting to have operating cost & range comparison of a/c vs. non a/c electric buses used for mass transit applications. Here's the reference article -

http://www.autocarpro.in/news-nation...vers-bus-27010

[mvadg]

I'm not happy with this "development".

For a country like India with its high population density, I'd prefer trolley buses and electric roads. Seems the rest of the world is doing that. Why mess with expensive, toxic batteries?
World’s first electric road opens in Sweden
Trucks start rolling down California eHighway

[sudev]

Have you been to Rohtang? Wire buses are good on level roads on plains. Also good for areas of low population density and lower land pressure.

Will you be able to get bus lane in Delhi or Bangalore? For inner city metro is better and more energy efficient option.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by sudev

Have you been to Rohtang? Wire buses are good on level roads on plains. Also good for areas of low population density and lower land pressure.

Will you be able to get bus lane in Delhi or Bangalore? For inner city metro is better and more energy efficient option.

San Francisco has trolleybuses, so your "plains" theory is out. Sorry. In fact, electric motors can handle slopes much better than any diesel or petrol engine. On some routes in San Francisco, diesel buses would need to pushed by the passengers to help them climb. Buses on such routes were replaced by electric trolleybuses.


Metro is much more expensive. Think about it. Trolleybuses do not require a track, they run on roads, energy is drawn from overhead wires.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by mvadg

San Francisco has trolleybuses, so your "plains" theory is out. Sorry. In fact, electric motors can handle slopes much better than any diesel or petrol engine. On some routes in San Francisco, diesel buses would need to pushed by the passengers to help them climb. Buses on such routes were replaced by electric trolleybuses.


Metro is much more expensive. Think about it. Trolleybuses do not require a track, they run on roads, energy is drawn from overhead wires.

Are you serious? You are comparing 51kms of switchbacks with 10000 feet altitude gain with a city network spanning an altitude difference of 500 feet?

And that too in a treacherous region with avalanches and mudslides a norm rather than the exception

[SmartCat]

These overhead electric road buses & trucks - what will happen if they are forced to swerve because a moose or bear crosses the road? Won't the swerving action break the overhead cables?

Meanwhile, the same company (Goldstone) seems to have secured another order - this time from BEST
http://www.autocarpro.in/news-nation...vers-bus-27010

Goldstone Infratech, the joint-venture between China-based BYD Company, the manufacturer of automobiles, buses, forklifts, rechargeable batteries, trucks, among others and Goldstone Group has delivered four K7 pure-electric buses to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST). The company had won an order to deliver six pure electric buses to the state transport.

The Hyderabad-based Goldstone Group forayed into electric mobility in November, 2016 when it announced its move to assemble electric buses in partnership with BYD. It has been testing its e-bus in various parts of the country - Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Rajkot. It delivered its first batch of e-buses to the Himachal Pradesh State Transport where its ebuzz K7 will ply on the Kullu-Manali-Rohtang pass route. The buses cost Rs 1.61 crore each.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by smartcat

These overhead electric road buses & trucks - what will happen if they are forced to swerve ...

They have a low capacity battery for such situations!
[P.S. I'm no expert on trolleybuses, but as with cars and engines, all these "inventions" have been around for quite some time, it seems .]

[sudev]

One... Efficiency. Steel rail and wheel offer the best combination for moving mass numbers inter or intra city.

Second...Special lanes require land against multi tier use of same land for road plus Metro / Monorail

Okay conceded. I amend the sentence to read straightish broad roads. No way San Francisco can be compared to Rohtang or ghat sections.

Electric motor offer good torque and that's why these buses. Only instead of drawing from power lines they are drawing current from battery.

Yes cost per bus seems high.

[amrutmhatre90]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Mumbai might become the first metropolitan city in India to introduce electric buses for public transport. According to Goldstone-BYD, they have received an order for 6 electric buses from Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST).

This bus was launched in Mumbai from BEST on Nov 11th. Total order was of 10 buses from which 4 have been delivered. I heard from my sources the cost for this bus was around 6-7cr.

This is a great move by the government, with a great electric range.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by amrutmhatre90

This is a great move by the government, with a great electric range.

While the effort is certainly worth applause, the Chinese origins of bus make me skeptical about the future. BEST has already toyed with Chinese AC buses all of which are in graveyard now while TMT and NMMT Volvo AC buses are increasing route periodically. Unless the quality of these is dramatically better than their earlier Chinese cousins, we might as well see BEST writing these off in few years.

[gururajrv]

Whilst electric powered vehicles is a welcome technology in automotive world, everyone’s wondering if IC engines are falling behind in terms of emissions when put against EV’s. The debate is already on with the critics. Well one of the articles says it depends on the source of electricity is produced, which deems it clean green or still an indirect threat to environment!

To put things into perspective, the author in the article has gone ahead and given a breakup of manufacturing emissions for these 2 type of propellers;

Quote:
For all the comparisons in this map the vehicle manufacturing of a gasoline car is just 40g CO2e/km compared to 70g CO2e/km for the electric vehicle. This is because we have accounted for both a greater manufacturing footprint and lower lifetime mileage in an electric car.
Unquote

Well the debate will still be on whether electric powered vehicles are really GREEN? How do they dispose the batteries when they’re taken off after they meet the end of their lifecycle? If it’s going to be recycled then it’s a good thing but the used components inside a battery, not all can be put to reuse isn’t it?

On the total price front, I believe the end users initial investment will be on the higher side for EV powered car which has basic range.

Map shows India is major contributor of CO2 emissions

Our future generation will not know what IC’s were capable of, despite being a threat to environment which we should be really concerned about now, looking at recent smog issues reported up north with few casualties. Hope things subside and may the best TECHNOLOGY win for the environment.