It's safe to say that most of the focus on vehicle electrification in the US is still aimed at personal vehicles, with a number of automakers making a push to make electric cars commonplace, as some sit on the sidelines. But in the focus on making the rates of EV adoption inch higher in depressingly tiny increments, the category of public transit has been largely overlooked.
While the US is not exactly at the forefront of electric bus technology-public transportation stateside being what it is-a handful of school bus manufacturers are trying to make the daily routine of thick clouds of diesel smoke during mornings and afternoons seem like a thing of the past. But this doesn't change the fact that most electric buses at the moment are now being produced in China, Europe, South Korea, and Russia.
Making electric buses from scratch is certainly one way to convert a city fleet to electric power, if city budgets permit. But there is another way.
UK-based EV startup Kleanbus has developed a technology-agnostic approach to convert any bus to electric power, at the cost of one-fifth of a new bus. The company has developed proprietary hardware and software to convert buses from leading manufacturers to electric drivetrains, with a conversion process designed to take less than two weeks after a custom electric drivetrain has been designed and tested for a given bus model.
This approach could pave the way for quicker rates of EV bus adoption in major cities, while preserving bus bodies with hundreds of thousands of miles left in them.
"The potential for repowered buses is huge," said Joe Tighe, co-founder and CEO of Kleanbus. "They could bring about fully electric bus fleets six years earlier than relying on roll out of new zero-emission buses alone."
In addition, the company offers to upgrade existing bus depots with chargers, which will allow buses to always recharge at their home base. The startup touts lower operating costs once a conversion has been performed, cited to be roughly a third of a conventional diesel bus.
The ideal candidates for the conversions are said to be buses that are five to ten years old, with the company aiming to keep chassis and body modifications to a minimum while updating the dashboard with more modern displays required for the EV drivetrains. Kleanbus doesn't mention battery size or range for its conversions, but the specs will certainly vary based on bus size and fleet requirements.
The resulting financial win for cities and bus fleets, according to the company, are five converted legacy buses for the price of one new electric one.
"With 97% of UK buses powered by diesel engines that emit large amounts of carbon, oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matter-and a staggering 35,000 of them on the road-the country faces a major challenge to rapidly decarbonize this vital transport sector and is struggling to move quickly enough."
At the moment development prototypes are undergoing trials in the east of England, with pilot programs with a number of bus fleets slated to begin in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The approach could offer a way to quickly revamps existing bus fleets, if there is political will in individual cities to undertake such an effort, though with projected electricity costs in the UK and the rest of western Europe for the upcoming winter there could be some setbacks. But as a concept, this could be a viable way to minimize harmful diesel emissions.
Should US cities opt for conversions in the near future, or wait until electric buses become more commonplace? Let us know in the comments below.