01-18-2019, 01:49 PM
(01-18-2019, 01:37 PM)Canard Wrote: Hybrids are simpler than conventional ICE-only vehicles Tom. My hybrid has far fewer things or moving parts to go wrong than a typical car.
A typical hybrid vehicle is a parallel one, with both battery-electric and conventional ICE powertrains, so it is arguably more complex. A series hybrid (such as a BMW i3) is simpler, as it only has an electric powertrain, and then a gasoline engine to generate power. (I don't know which type the GRT buses were.) Pure BEV is the simplest, however.
But anyway, my point wasn't about complexity, but about the maturity of the BEV buses (and their manufacturing). BYD is making electric buses, but they have very limited capacity for now, and there are really no other viable manufacturers for the North American market right now, as far as I know. Getting 50 BEV buses would take a long time due to manufacturing constraints, and there isn't effective competition to keep prices down. Batteries are still evolving, and 3-4 years from now there will be far more choices for BEV buses.