Battery-electric bus

An electric bus is a bus powered by electricity.

There are two main electric bus categories:

For information on buses using a combination of internal combustion engines and electric propulsion, see Hybrid electric buses and Dual-mode buses.

One of the most popular electric buses nowadays are the battery electric buses. They have stored the electricity on board in a battery. Today such buses have a range over 200 km with one charge. These buses are usually used because of its limited range as city buses. As a city bus with all costs they are cheaper than a comparable diesel bus.

City driving mostly is accelerating and braking the battery electric bus is superior to diesel buses as it can recharge most of the kinetic energy back to batteries in braking situations. This reduces brake wear and it also improves air quality in city centers.

When operating within a city it is important to minimize the unloaded and rolling weight of the bus. This can be accomplished by using aluminium as the main construction material for a bus. Composite paneling and other lightweight materials can also be used. According to Linkkebus their fully aluminium bus construction is about 3000kg lighter than comparably-sized modern steel buses (curb weight 9500kg) . Reducing weight allows for a greater payload and reduces wear to components such as brakes, tires, and joints bringing costs savings to the operator.

The best ultracapacitors can only store about 5 percent of the energy that lithium-ion batteries hold, limiting them to a couple of miles per charge. This makes them ineffective as an energy storage medium for passenger vehicles. But what ultracapacitors lack in range they make up in their ability to rapidly charge and discharge. So in vehicles that have to stop frequently and predictably as part of normal operation, energy storage based exclusively on ultracapacitors begins to make sense.

China is experimenting with a new form of electric bus, known as Capabus, which runs without continuous overhead lines by using power stored in large onboard electric double-layer capacitors, which are quickly recharged whenever the vehicle stops at any bus stop (under so-called electric umbrellas), and fully charged in the terminus.

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