Total Cost of Ownership Model and Significant Cost Parameters for the Design of Electric Bus Systems
Journal article, 2020

Without experiences of electric buses, public transport authorities and bus operators have faced questions about how to implement them in a cost-effective way. Simple cost modelling cannot show how costs for different types of electric buses differ between different routes and timetables. Tools (e.g., HASTUS, PtMS, and optibus) which can analyse such details are complicated, time consuming to use, and provide insufficient insights into the mechanisms that influence the cost. This paper therefore proposes a method for how to calculate total cost of ownership, for different types of electric buses, in a way which can predict how the cost varies based on route and timetable. The method excludes factors which cause minor cost variations in an almost random manor, in order to better show the fundamental mechanisms influencing different costs. The method will help in finding ways to reduce the cost and help to define a few cases which deserve a deep analysis with more complete tools. Testing of the method in a Swedish context showed that the results are in line with other theoretical and practical studies, and how the total cost of ownership can vary depending on the variables.

total cost of ownership

electric bus

cost model

charging strategy

TCO

sustainability

public transport

Author

Anders Grauers

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Systems and control

Sven Borén

Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, BTH

Oscar Enerbäck

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

Energies

1996-1073 (ISSN) 19961073 (eISSN)

Vol. 13 12 3262

Decision support for implementing electric buses in public transport

Swedish Energy Agency (41411-1), 2016-01-01 -- 2017-12-31.

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Transport

Subject Categories

Environmental Engineering

Vehicle Engineering

Energy Systems

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.3390/en13123262

More information

Latest update

9/17/2020