Posted on 10/30/2014 6:23:18 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
The 40-foot green machines, which as prototypes are priced at about $1 million each, are made by New Flyer Industries. The all-electric propulsion system was built by Siemens.
Regular diesel-powered buses cost $400,000 to $500,000 each, and diesel-electric hybrid buses cost about $700,000, according to the CTA.
CTA officials estimated the electric buses will reduce energy costs by more than $25,000 a year per bus, or roughly $300,000 over the average 12-year bus life span.
The electric bus demonstration project is funded by a $2.2 million grant received in 2011 from the Federal Transit Administration, plus about $300,000 in congestion mitigation funding, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at my.chicagotribune.com ...
Windmill Chopped Condor Powered Buses.
Green? What’s green about building and disposing of tons of batteries? What charges the batteries, unicorn poop?
A good cold Chicago Winter morning will kill those buses. What a sack of Durbin. BTW, one of my lib friends owns a Tesla and admitted the other day that the car dies if it isn’t plugged in all night. Sounds like an old Iphone.
Starting back in the 1890s, they were building electric trolley cars. Those things never wore out. They went through ice and snow. They were destroyed by a government/business conspiracy. Ford Motor Co., Standard Oil, Firestone Tires. Over a period of 20-some years, they destroyed trolley lines across the U.S. In the end, they were found guilty and fined ONE DOLLAR.
Diesel would have been cheaper and 90% as “green”.
I can understand these being operated as experiments, but not as regular buses. They aren’t ready yet.
The comments at the site are interesting.
SO ... my electric bill has necessarily skyrocketed ... and the “cost of energy” is more, so .... because I am no math whiz ... is there REALLY a savings for a more expensive, yet to be determined maintenance free(er) vehicle saving relative pennies over a relatively short time ?
“plus about $300,000 in congestion mitigation funding”
Congestion mitigation funding?
Another government trough.
I never knew why they were called that , but I took the Queen Mary down to Forest Hills and got a transfer (little piece of paper saying I had paid waaayy back in Roslindale and I was permitted to continue on with the same nickle fare) .. to Boston Trade, where I went to school
There were ready, and operational in the early 1900s.
I have a repair manual for them.
They used Nickel iron "Edison" batteries that required no charge controller, and improved with age.
You couldn't over charge them, and completely discharging them didn't harm them.
Those simple, rugged batteries are finally now being produced in the USA again, and sold by Iron Edison.
If we want electric busses and trucks, should just dig out the old prints and patents on the ones proven to work.
Throw on modern safety and control equipment, and you have a cheap, reliable bus or truck.
They make sense in cities, useless in the wide open spaces.
“The project is awesome, it can save a lot of energy.”
Are you being sarcastic?
Europeans have had electric busses for decades....with overhead wires, of course.
Minor correction: It was General Motors that bought, neglected and replaced the trolley systems with diesel buses, not Ford.
Wait ‘til the next polar vortex comes through town.
“Hey Harry, youse got dem jumper cables?”
Does anybody really know what time it is?
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