Off Topic » Proterra battery-powered bus

Today, while riding my Zero westbound on Sharp Park Road in Pacifica, I passed a Proterra electric bus exactly like the on on their webpage: https://www.proterra.com/

It appeared to be their demo vehicle and was likely being tested for the local bus company to prove that it can handle its routes. However, I would like to know what their buses cost. I bet it is not cheap as the body is of carbon-fiber composite construction. Nice looking, though. But maybe they went a bit overboard on the "wrap".

We've had electric busses here in my city of Eindhoven for two years now, they seem pretty successful and reliable from what I hear.

They are converted "normal" busses, so you only hear the difference. Good development to remove the big diesel busses from the city!

"At Hermes in Eindhoven, since December 2016, a total of 43 Citea SLFA-181 Electric articulated buses have been used under the brand name "Bravo". this is one of the largest electric bus fleets in Europe."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDL_Citea and
https://eindhovennews.com/news/2016/12/new-electric-fleet-buses-bravo/

So Bravo is a household name here, some member here on the forum will like that I guess...

We had electric buses in the North of England when I was a child back in the fifties. They ran from 1916 and were replaced by diesel in 1971.
Called "trolley buses" they picked up power from an overhead line but did not run on a track or rails likes trams but followed the road on standard rubber tyres.
Sometimes they became disconnected if the driver strayed too far off line and long poles were deployed to get the pick ups back on the wires.
I read that after they were replaced, the huge motors were inspected and were in as new condition. I believe one or two survive in a transport museum somewhere.
Technology moves at a slow pace sometimes.
Alan
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/nosta...-buses-15273089

It's worth persevering to watch the video clip. I like the bit where the bus is pushed by its passengers when it gets too far from the overhead line.

Zitat von Alda im Beitrag #3

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We had electric buses in the North of England when I was a child back in the fifties. They ran from 1916 and were replaced by diesel in 1971.
Called "trolley buses" they picked up power from an overhead line but did not run on a track or rails likes trams but followed the road on standard rubber tyres.
Sometimes they became disconnected if the driver strayed too far off line and long poles were deployed to get the pick ups back on the wires.
I read that after they were replaced, the huge motors were inspected and were in as new condition. I believe one or two survive in a transport museum somewhere.
Technology moves at a slow pace sometimes.
Alan
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/nosta...-buses-15273089

It's worth persevering to watch the video clip. I like the bit where the bus is pushed by its passengers when it gets too far from the overhead line.

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Right - so Chicago ordered 20 Proterras last year after testing a couple.

Long overdue replacement to the trolley busses previously referenced, that had their last run in Chicago in 1973.
(I note that the old Buffalo Ice Cream Parlor (the corner of 4000 Pulaski and 4000 Irving Park Road) - seen in the photo - lost it's lease the same year, but was bailed out by Chicago politics () for another 5 y.
5310-9422-sb-pulaski-irving-park-3-11-731.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Zitat von Richard230 im Beitrag #4

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San Francisco has had those kind of electric buses for as long as I can remember, probably at least since the early 1900's, too. They still use them, along with diesel buses, light rail vehicles - and of course the famous cable cars.

But the existing electric buses need a dedicated overhead electric infrastructure, with pickups on the top of the bus, both front and rear. Once in a while they get too far from the overhead lines and have to be pushed back under the wires so they can start up again.

Since battery-powered buses can operate independently, just like a diesel-power vehicle, they don't require any sort of dedicated infrastructure, other than a normal paved roadway, and of course, a battery recharging system, which would typically be located at the bus after-hours storage facility. Let's hope that the buses' batteries don't overheat when being recharged. That could be bad.

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Zitat von Alda im Beitrag #3

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We had electric buses in the North of England when I was a child back in the fifties. They ran from 1916 and were replaced by diesel in 1971.
Called "trolley buses" they picked up power from an overhead line but did not run on a track or rails likes trams but followed the road on standard rubber tyres.
Sometimes they became disconnected if the driver strayed too far off line and long poles were deployed to get the pick ups back on the wires.
I read that after they were replaced, the huge motors were inspected and were in as new condition. I believe one or two survive in a transport museum somewhere.
Technology moves at a slow pace sometimes.
Alan
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/nosta...-buses-15273089

It's worth persevering to watch the video clip. I like the bit where the bus is pushed by its passengers when it gets too far from the overhead line.

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I worked on some unmanned battery powered work stations for Cummins engines back in the eighties. They followed a wire buried in the floor carrying an engine block and went from bay to bay where workers added the various components until the engine was fully built. It finally ended up at the test bed to be put through its paces. When "tired" they went back to the charging station and parked over inductive plates until fully charged and then went back into service.
This was very innovative at the time and was run from a very basic computer.
Alan

Meanwhile, there was a news report today regarding recycling that said that the U.S. (at least) has no infrastructure that can recycle lithium-ion batteries and they are getting dumped into our landfill, along with plastics, glass and just about everything else, except for some metals like aluminum.

Last month a local garbage transfer station caught on fire and burned to the ground. The claim was that a partially-charged lithium battery that had been dumped in the trash had started the fire.