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Title: Battery capacity and recharging needs for electric buses in city transit service

Journal Article · · Energy (Oxford)
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Energetics Inc., Colubmia, MD (United States)
  3. Vehicle Technologies Office, Washington, DC (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Our paper evaluates the energy consumption and battery performance of city transit electric buses operating on real day-to-day routes and standardized bus drive cycles, based on a developed framework tool that links bus electrification feasibility with real-world vehicle performance, city transit bus service reliability, battery sizing and charging infrastructure. The impacts of battery capacity combined with regular and ultrafast charging over different routes have been analyzed in terms of the ability to maintain city transit bus service reliability like conventional buses. These results show that ultrafast charging via frequent short-time boost charging events, for example at a designated bus stop after completing each circuit of an assigned route, can play a significant role in reducing the battery size and can eliminate the need for longer duration charging events that would cause schedule delays. Furthermore, the analysis presented shows that significant benefits can be realized by employing multiple battery configurations and flexible battery swapping practices in electric buses. These flexible design and use options will allow electric buses to service routes of varying city driving patterns and can therefore enable meaningful reductions to the cost of the vehicle and battery while ensuring service that is as reliable as conventional buses.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1342660
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1415886
Journal Information:
Energy (Oxford), Vol. 122, Issue C; ISSN 0360-5442
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 109 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Exploration of Optimal Powertrain Design Using Realistic Load Profiles journal September 2019
A Wide Range of Testing Results on an Excellent Lithium-Ion Cell Chemistry to be used as Benchmarks for New Battery Technologies journal January 2019
Recoverability Analysis of Critical Materials from Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries through a Dynamic Fleet-Based Approach for Japan journal December 2019
Calculated Modes for Assessing Operation Properties and Dependability of Vehicles book January 2019
Energy Uncertainty Analysis of Electric Buses journal November 2018

Figures / Tables (10)

TABLE 1(p. 15)table TABLE 1
TABLE 2(p. 16)table TABLE 2
TABLE 3(p. 17)table TABLE 3
FIGURE 1(p. 18)figure FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2(p. 19)figure FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3(p. 20)figure FIGURE 3
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FIGURE 5(p. 22)figure FIGURE 5
FIGURE 6(p. 23)figure FIGURE 6
FIGURE 7(p. 24)figure FIGURE 7

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Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
bus electrification
battery sizing
ultrafast charging
city transit service