Abstract
The city of Tampere in Finland aims to be carbon-neutral in 2030 and wanted to find out how the electrification of public transport would help achieve the climate goal. Research has covered topics related to electric buses, ranging from battery technologies to lifecycle assessment and cost analysis. However, less is known about electric city buses’ performance in cold climatic zones. This study collected and analysed weather and electric city bus data to understand the effects of temperature and weather conditions on the electric buses’ efficiency. Data were collected from four battery-electric buses and one hybrid bus as a reference. The buses were fast-charged at the market and slow-charged at the depot. The test route ran downtown. The study finds that the average energy consumption of the buses during winter was 40–45% higher than in summer (kWh/km). The effect of cabin cooling is minor compared to the cabin heating energy needs. The study also finds that infrastructure needs to have enough safety margins in case of faults and additional energy consumption in harsh weather conditions. In addition, appropriate training for operators, maintenance and other personnel is needed to avoid disturbances caused by charging and excessive energy consumption by driving style.
Highlights
Research shows that electric buses produce up to 75% fewer emissions than conventional diesel buses [6]
Better known as TKL—operated t parties were involved in City preparing and implementing the electric bus system procurement; Tampere city was the main implementer of the procurement project public transport service for half a century
Thermal winter starts when the average temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius at least five days in a row
Summary
Several cities across the world have sustainable mobility plans to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions, pollution and traffic jams [1–3]. In Finland, the temperature can vary from +35 ◦ C to −35 ◦ C [8] It is of utmost importance for city traffic planners to understand how electric buses perform in different ambient temperatures [10]. This study aims to understand how to operate battery-electric buses in a city located at latitude 61.3 North, where temperature varies between +32 ◦ C and −32 ◦ C, and buses need to operate on snowy and icy street conditions. This study collected and analysed weather and electric city bus data to understand the effects of ambient temperature, driving conditions and weather on the efficiency (vehicle energy economy) and range of the city buses in the city of Tampere, Finland
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