Cold Weather Impacts on Electric School Buses

In general, electric buses seem to be the future of school bus transportation. As the people and nations of the world increasingly move towards electric vehicles in general, we're realizing the benefits of reducing fossil fuel use.

However, EVs are not a perfect magic bullet, and they do have their own issues to consider. One big one is the effect of cold weather on electric school buses and other EVs. Cold will hurt their performance, and this is something that districts should keep in mind - especially if they're in areas with long or hard winters.

The Effects of Winter on Electric School Buses

First, we should emphasize that this is not a deal-breaker. Electric buses have been successfully deployed in extremely cold areas such as Minnesota and Canada. You simply need to be aware of the challenges, and take steps to mitigate them.

1) Difficulty starting

Like pretty much all motors, EVs can have difficulty starting in especially cold weather. Fortunately, this is a well-understood issue, and most electric vehicles come with standard battery/motor heaters to deal with the problem. If not, such systems can be retrofitted onto vehicles with little difficulty.

In this respect, it's not much different than buses with internal-combustion engines.

2) Reduced battery capacity / range

This is a bigger issue. The colder the weather, the less power the battery will be able to store. In addition, they may have to divert power to heating the battery and motors. This ultimately reduces the range of electric buses.

The exact amount of the reduction will depend on a wide variety of factors, including the actual temperature, the battery manufacturer, and how rough/difficult the terrain is otherwise. The average loss seems to float around 15-25% percent.

Basically, if you have bus routes that push the limits of your batteries in hot weather, you may need to retool your routes to be shorter in the winter. If not, the reduction in range will probably not cause major problems. However, we do recommend doing a test run in cold weather before committing to the routes, just in case.

3) Driving on snow / ice

This is a situation where electric buses actually tend to outperform internal-combustion engines.

This mostly boils down to weight distribution. In an older bus, the engine is up-front and adds a lot of weight, compared to the relatively lightweight back end. This makes it easier for the rear wheels to lose traction.

In electric school buses, the battery is the main source of weight, and is mounted along the bottom of the bus. This spreads out the weight, and helps ensure all wheels maintain traction. In addition, because the heaviest part of the bus is so low to the ground, this lowers its center of gravity and makes rollovers less likely as well.

Care is still needed when driving on slick surfaces, of course. But generally speaking, electric buses will be safer than gas-guzzlers.

4) Protecting riders from the cold

The other issue is preserving the safety of students and drivers within the bus, in deep cold. It is possible to rig up heating systems that pull power directly from the battery, but this will further reduce range. Some districts instead choose to use a gasoline-powered heater, which somewhat defeats the purpose of EVs, but helps preserve battery power.

Another option is using heated seats, rather than full climate control. These are more expensive to install, but they use much less power while still keeping people warm.

If you need help improving your bus operations or creating great bus routes, BusBoss is here to help! Contact us and let us know what challenges are facing your bus system.

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