Robert Prohaska

Foothill Transit Battery Electric Bus Demonstration Results

NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. Acknowledgments This evaluation at Foothill Transit would not have been possible without the support and cooperation of many people. The authors thank the following individuals: Ah amp-hours BEB battery electric bus CARB California Air Resources Board CNG compressed natural gas DGE diesel gallon equivalent DOE U.S. Department of Energy ESS energy storage system FCEB fuel cell electric bus ft feet FTA Federal Transit Administration GGE gasoline gallon equivalent GVWR gross vehicle weight rating hp horsepower HVAC heating, ventilation, and air conditioning in. inches kg kilograms kW kilowatts kWh kilowatt hours lb pounds MBRC miles between roadcalls mph miles per hour NREL National Renewable Energy Laboratory PMI preventive maintenance inspection psi pounds per square inch PTC Pomona Transit Center SI International System of Units SOC state of charge TIGGER Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction TRL technology readiness level ZBus zero emission bus v This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. Availability: The number of days the buses are actually available compared to the days that the buses are planned for operation expressed as percent availability. Clean point: For each evaluation, NREL works with the project partners to determine a starting point—or clean point—for the data analysis period. The clean point is chosen to avoid some of the early and expected operations problems with a new vehicle going into service, such as early maintenance campaigns. In some cases, reaching the clean point may require 3 to 6 months of operation before the evaluation can start. Deadhead: The miles and hours that a vehicle travels when out of revenue …

Characterization of in-use medium duty electric vehicle driving and charging behavior

The U.S. Department of Energys American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) deployment and demonstration projects are helping to commercialize technologies for all-electric vehicles (EVs). Under the ARRA program, data from Smith Electric and Navistar medium duty EVs have been collected, compiled, and analyzed in an effort to quantify the impacts of these new technologies. Over a period of three years, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has compiled data from over 250 Smith Newton EVs for a total of over 100,000 days of in-use operation. Similarly, data have been collected from over 100 Navistar eStar vehicles, with over 15,000 operating days having been analyzed. NREL has analyzed a combined total of over 4 million kilometers of driving and 1 million hours of charging data for commercial operating medium duty EVs. In this paper, the authors present an overview of medium duty EV operating and charging behavior based on in-use data collected from both Smith and Navistar vehicles operating in the United States. Specifically, this paper provides an introduction to the specifications and configurations of the vehicles examined; discusses the approach and methodology of data collection and analysis, and presents detailed results regarding daily driving and charging behavior. In addition, trends observed over the course of multiple years of data collection are examined, and conclusions are drawn about early deployment behavior and ongoing adjustments due to new and improving technology. Results and metrics such as average daily driving distance, route aggressiveness, charging frequency, and liter per kilometer diesel equivalent fuel consumption are documented and discussed.