Confusing Signals about Electric Buses

Recently, I have written several articles about electric buses to National Bus Trader magazine (see https://transalt.com/article/electric-buses-part-1-the-good-the-bad-and-the-challenge-of-both-schoolbuses/; https://transalt.com/article/electric-schoolbuses-part-2-a-small-transit-agencys-early-foray-into-electric-buses/; https://transalt.com/article/electric-buses-part-3-technically-feasible-concepts/; https://transalt.com/article/transportation-energy-and-politics/ and https://transalt.com/article/technology-and-values. Altogether, I provided some logic for where such vehicles make sense and where they don’t. Much of this was based on the high cost of charging stations (which I understand to be great than those for automobiles and small trucks), the number of buses in the system, and the number of charging stations needed to accommodate them, given the route structure.

As transportation system design is essentially the task of mastering time and space, these considerations are challenging enough, particularly given the costs versus benefits. This analysis is different than with automobiles, SUVs, pickup trucks and small delivery vehicles, the volume of which is considerable, and which has a sizeable, two-digit impact on air quality considerations. The same is hardly true with large buses and the asterisk of an impact on air quality they have in most service areas.

Regrettably, albeit predictably, decisions about purchasing electric buses have become even more murky in recent weeks with the political and economic dance steps of the Musk/Trump Administration which changes multiple positions on several major policies almost daily, thanks largely to court challenges that deem most of this Administration’s policies illegal. This problem is compounded by the backlash through both North American and Europe against buying Teslas, the confusion these dynamics have caused China and Canada, both of which together manufacture more than half of them, and the daily changes in tariff whims about imposing them on both nations.

Some stability and common sense throughout the new U.S. policy labyrinth would make it easier transportation agencies to revert back to the normal considerations about purchasing electric buses, noted above, which are daunting enough by themselves.