While I always enjoy looking back at some of the classic motor coaches from the Golden Age of bus transportation, its also good to look forward to see where mass transit may be heading. A few months ago we reviewed current and future trends in bus propulsion technology; CNG, Hydrogen, and Battery Electric. We concluded that battery-electric would likely become the dominant player. Here’s an example supporting that view – the Proterra battery-electric urban transit coach.
Proterra was launched in 2004 and introduced its first 35 ft battery-electric bus in 2008, the Ecoliner BE35. It’s an innovative design, using carbon fiber and other advanced composite materials for a majority of is structure, resulting in a very light curb weight.
Additionally, like some older bus designs, it has its engine, transmission, and other control functions in one power pack unit that can be easily removed and replaced for service and maintenance.
Like every electric vehicle manufacturer from Detroit Electric to Tesla, Proterra had to address the two major hurdles with this type of motive power; battery capacity (as expressed in range) and recharging cycle time. These initial BE35 models have a nominal range of around 146 miles – adequate for shorter lines, but not for a regular urban route which averages around 300 miles in a typical 18 hours of operation. Additionally, recharging requires 3 – 5 hours, which means the bus has to be taken out of service. As a result, initial sales were slow – Foothill Transit of Pomona CA purchased three BE35’s in 2009, ten were sold to five different operators in 2011, nine in 2012, and eleven in 2013.
But things brightened considerably beginning in 2014 – the company hired a new CEO, Ryan Popple, who was previously the Chief Financial Officer for Tesla. Additionally, the company’s R&D efforts began paying dividends – a new 40 foot model was introduced named the Catalyst XR. This model has both an extended range, 258 miles, and a new fast-charging system. In turn, total 2015 sales reached sixty-two coaches to 13 different operators.
In 2016, an updated Catalyst, the E2, was brought out with the longest range of any battery-electric coach – 358 miles on a typical urban transit route. In addition, a further refined fast charging system permits a 26% recharge in only five minutes and a full charge in less than an hour and a half.
In January of this year the company built its 100th bus, and more importantly has another 200 orders on its books. It forecasts that by 2020 every major urban transportation operator will have a portion of its system operating on battery-electric, with 50% of all new bus sales being electric by 2025. Those figures may seem optimistic, but the numbers are compelling; typical real-world MPG for diesel, CNG and hybrid transit buses are, respectively, 3.8, 3.3, and 4.6. A 2016 study of 12 Proterra buses in use by Foothill Transportation of Pomona over 400K miles showed a power usage rate of 2.15kWh per mile which translates to 17.48 mpg equivalent.
Bus prices are coming down also as the manufacturing process becomes more mature and efficient. Early Proterra models were $1 million each – that price has dropped to $800K. Comparable diesel/CNG/hybrid models start at $300K on the low end, up to around $600K. As we’ve mentioned before, the Federal government provides grants that fund about 80% of the cost of new capital purchases – plus additional federal subsidies are given for zero emission models.
BYD K9 Battery-Electric Bus in testing service with MTA of New York
But there are competitors – coach manufacturers in Europe and the US are also pursuing battery-electric models. The Chinese company, BYD, however is on par and in some aspects ahead of everyone else – to date they have built over 4000 battery-electric buses worldwide, and have a new US manufacturing facility in Lancaster CA. They also have a range of sizes that include 35, 40, and a 60 ft articulated version. But while BYD has more models and are less expensive than Proterra’s buses, they lack the range and proprietary fast charging system.
My sense is we’re very likely to be seeing more Proterra buses gliding silently along our streets…
CHARGER HEADLIGHTS!
MURANO TAILLIGHTS!
My exact reaction 😀 those stand out like sore thumbs to me. Wait until a few years when they start to fog over and turn yellow like they are on the 06-10 Chargers I regularly see with them, what a lovely dystopian future we’re marching towards.
The future is arriving, and quickly. Both Proterra and BYD continue to rack up sales, including an order from here in the Eugene area. And as a pedestrian and bicyclist, I’m not going to miss the noise and heat coming off the back of a bus, although the new recent diesel-hybrids are quite a bit better already.
I notice the “ZERO EMISSIONS” emblazoned upon one of the demonstrators.
This cannot be true unless the source of the electricity to charge the batteries is also zero-emissions. Hydroelectric, as in San Francisco, which owns its hydroelectric generation faciltiy and distribution, and Vancouver BC, which gets its power from BC Hydro, and whose transit system was once owned by BC Hydro, qualify. Their electric transit is Zero Emissions.
So do solar and wind power but there are currently no all-solar or all-wind electric utility sources; all-solar charging facilities for a captive electric bus fleet is definitely within practicality. Nuclear qualifies, too, as long as its emissions are only water vapor…some nuclear plants use fossil fuel or the pooled electric grid for support facilities to run the reactors.
Any electric power source that includes fossil fuel generation is not Zero Emissions, and that needs to extend to the bus transit systems using that power. Electric intercity, commuter and transit trains in the US East, including Amtrak, also cannot claim Zero Emissions.
San Francisco does proudly, prominently and correctly label its electric trolley bus fleet with “ZERO EMISSIONS VEHICLE.”
“Zero Emission Vehicle” (“ZEV”) is a well-defined legal term used by CARB and other governmental agencies. It clearly (and obviously) refers to the lack of any emissions from the vehicle’s powerplant. It’s been in use for decades now.
Yes, quite obviously, the source of the electricity does create emissions, except to the extent they’re created by renewable sources. At the current average US energy mix, an EV lowers CO emissions (at the source) by 30+%. But of course the whole appeal is that as the energy mix in the US moves towards lower CO output, the balance improves further. So that 30% average improvement alone is substantial, but has the possibility to improve further.
California is making very big improvements in its percentage of renewables in its mix. Just the other day, CA set a record by going for 5 hours with 85% of its state-wide power consumption coming from renewable sources. A 100% period is close at hand.
Note that hydroelectric power may be zero emission but without environmental impact. As matter of fact, those hydroelectric dams in the west have for ever changed the nature of the west. I am not the global warming denial person, but I often doubt the model and calculation of the human green house gas impact. There are just too many political and financial interests on both sides of greenhouse gas debate, which will lead to human in the wrong direction eventually no matter which side is wining. One fact is clear that human progress and high living standards demand more energy
I wonder if anyone ever calculate wether US electric grid and output can accommodate 20% of US vehicles runing on electric power. Fossil fuels have been the main source for industrial and technology revolutions, and will continue to be the human energy source for foreseeable future.
I love it! And I hope that Transcontinental Bus companies (Greyhound and Trailways International) will adopt the Electric bus concepts too. Me, I hope that Intercity Transit (Olympia’s transit system) Will adopt Proterra’s Electric buses to it’s fleet too…
That may take a bit longer yet, until batteries are capable of longer distances (range) and super-fast charging. Probably before too long.
Starting in late 2017 to early 2018, MTA New York City Transit will have a small fleet of five Proterra BE40 Transit Buses which will be its first Proterra product on its future fleet. These might only be leased buses since a demonstrator can only be one or two buses at a time.
Interesting, as always. Recently 43 articulated electric VDL buses went into service in the City of Eindhoven (DAF’s hometown), instantly becoming the European urban region with the highest electric transit bus density.
Tel-Aviv’s Dan co-op uses Chinese Higers which as I understand use ultra capacitor technology – they have low range but charging (which takes place at the respective last stops) takes minutes, not hours.
A clip featuring the bus charging (including at least one CC) plus a ride with Dan’s Route 4. It is obviously very quite and the aircon is being used throughout.
The driver can be heard saying “it’s not a battery, it’s a capacitor” on a number of occasions…
Very interesting design and remarkable technology. I wonder, though, about the durability of the chassis and body given the punishment any bus takes over its lifetime. Some innovative leaps are reliable, some aren’t, so it would be interesting to know how these hold up long-term.
I had the chance to tour the Proterra assembly facility in Greenville, SC a couple years ago. Neat facility, great people and an interesting product.
Jay Leno’s Garage did a YouTube video interview with Proterra. Fascinating stuff with the lightweight composite structure and all, but probably the most interesting bit is that roof mounted blade recharger interface—because if the operator installs the accompanying fast-charge canopy at the transit center or wherever else drivers typically take their smoke/pee break, range essentially becomes unlimited (26% capacity bump per 15 minutes connected), so the bus can run 24-7.
One hitch is that IIRC the batteries are not liquid cooled, which would seem to suggest that frequent fast charging, or deployment in Arizona, would be inadvisable. But it’s possible that I recall that wrong, that it’s not a big deal, or that it will be fixed on the next generation.
The other trouble for Proterra is that making a better bus than everyone else is expensive. Los Angeles put out to bid for electric buses and selected Canadian New Flyer and Chinese BYD electric buses, not the segment’s technology leader right in their back yard. (Officials hastened to add this won’t be the last round of purchases and Proterra could still be selected in a future round. That seems especially likely after some reports of trouble in BYD test fleets: doors that don’t shut, mileage that falls short of estimates, etc.