Re: Kolkata plans shift to electric public transport from 2030 I apologize if this post is OT or even politically incorrect.
Government agencies in India have suddenly jumped on to the "electric bus" bandwagon blindly for reasons best known to themselves. Of course, it is not just in India that cities have started introducing electric buses into their fleets. As with everything else, other countries started earlier and have accumulated more data on the costs, pros and cons of these electric buses. Our government will however insist on not learning from the mistakes of others and make the same mistakes at enormous cost to the taxpayers and reward themselves in spite of all the mishaps.
I think on a forum like TBHP we need to do a better analysis of the ROI of these battery powered electric buses.
Batteries are the single most expensive component of any electric vehicle and on a Tesla they are 43% of the overall cost. More than anything else, these vehicles are battery packs on wheels. A BMTC employee revealed the same numbers about the electric buses.
Nothing much has been said about the cost of charging stations, with are another huge drain on resources.
Why don't we think of trolley buses? Cheap, effective and non-polluting? And no imported lithium or import of technology required!
Media is silent on trolley buses, in fact, it seems there is a deliberate attempt to wipe out trolley buses, a competing and proven technology. The media blackout is so severe, trolley buses are never mentioned alongside electric buses. Kicking the tires on battery-electric buses Quote:
"In our view, the right solution is not (at this time) to move toward large scale adoption of battery buses, but to re-invest in and expand the MBTA’s fleet of electric trolley buses – a technology with a 100-plus year proven record of performance"
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May be a separate thread is needed to promote trolley buses? Get wired (again): Trolleybuses and Trolleytrucks
Last edited by mvadg : 16th October 2019 at 09:40.
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