rjxj wrote:
"The interesting thing is these diesel buses have such massive fuel tanks—given how inefficient they are—that it takes longer to completely refill an 80- or 120-gallon diesel bus system than it does to recharge our electric vehicles," explains Proterra CEO Ryan Popple. "So we're actually getting to the point where the vehicles that are configured for fast charge can be replenished faster than you can stick a hose in the side of a diesel bus and fill it with fuel."
According to Popple, Proterra's fast-charger can recharge a 100kWh electric bus in just ten minutes, sufficient for a circulator bus route of 30 (48km) miles or less. That's better than diesel or even natural gas, he told us: "We've gone from something that would have been considered a negative for EVs—slow overnight charging—and now we've gone to the point where EVs are advantaged relative to combustion in terms of speed and ease of refueling." (Recharging the 400kWh batteries of a longer-range electric bus would obviously take longer.)
So his system takes 10 minutes to recharge the battery for a 30 mile route. but he is claiming that is faster than the time needed to fill the tank on a diesel bus? 80 gallons of diesel, may take longer than 10 minutes to pump, but even at a low 4MPG, that is 320 miles, or running that 30 mile loop all day. Yes, each time you have to refuel you are faster, but you have to refuel 10 times more often by his numbers.
