Real-world performance of battery electric buses and their life-cycle benefits with respect to energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions

Boya Zhou, Ye Wu, Bin Zhou, Renjie Wang, Wenwei Ke, Shaojun Zhang and Jiming Hao

Energy, 2016, vol. 96, issue C, 603-613

Abstract: Battery electric buses can reduce energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China's transportation system. On-road testing is necessary to evaluate these benefits compared to their diesel counterparts through life-cycle assessment for both the upstream fuel production and operation stages. Three electric buses from China are operated and charged in Macao under different air-conditioning, load, and speed settings. In the minimum load scenario, the two 12-m buses achieve 138–175 kWh/100 km, and the 8-m bus achieves 79 kWh/100 km (system charging loss included). When air-conditioning and load are at their maximum values, the energy consumption increases by 21–27%; however, air-conditioning usage exerts a greater impact than passenger load. The diesel bus on-road performance increases more significantly than the electric bus performance under low speeds, higher load, and air-conditioning use, while the electric bus energy and CO2 emission benefits increase. Across a wide range of conditions, the electric bus reduces petroleum use by 85–87% compared to a diesel bus and achieves a 32–46% reduction in fossil fuel use and 19–35% in CO2 emissions from a life-cycle perspective. A cleaner power grid and an increase in system charging efficiency (if better than 60–84%) would enhance the future benefits of electric buses.

Keywords: Battery electric bus; Energy consumption; On-road testing; Life-cycle CO2 emissions; System charging efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (67)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:96:y:2016:i:c:p:603-613

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.12.041

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