this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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AAA says that EV batteries tend to lose power faster in cold weather, getting as little as 50-60% of their advertised range.
"Charging stations around the city are over capacity... Once their car is finally plugged in, it takes longer than usual to power up. “...They tell you it’s fast, but then it takes two hours to charge your car,” Marcus Campbell tells NBC Chicago."
https://www.pcmag.com/news/dont-buy-a-tesla-chicagos-ev-drivers-struggle-with-sub-zero-temperatures
This weather is a worst case scenario and I doubt schools would be open anyway but sounds like EVs are having a tough time.
Don't buy a battery only car if you don't have a place to charge it. But that's totally irrelevant to school busses.
They wouldn't use public chargers you buffoon.
School busses are used like 4 hours per day, so that leaves 20 hours per day for charging.
99% of School busses need to drive less than 156 miles per day.
School busses drive slowly, another thing well suited to electrification.
Honestly lithium batteries are probably totally unneeded here. Something swappable? A cheaper lower performance battery could be used and charged or swapped during the 6 hours the kids are at school. Charging speed could be actively managed to help level grid load e.g charge overnight, but not during peak usage times.
I was replying to a post that started with: "1. Electric cars run just fine in icy weather"
Just fuck off with the name calling
Right, and the EVs that lose that much range are the ones with the smallest battery packs. The heating requirement as a percentage of the battery pack goes down as the battery gets larger. It takes roughly the same amount of energy to keep a 40kWh battery warm as it does to keep a 150kWh battery warm.
The same logic doesn't directly translate for a car as a bus.