The reference to a battery bus costing $1 million compared to $500,000 for a diesel bus shows just how broken the market for buses are in the U.S. That's a $500,000 cost premium for going electric, yet I've listened to enough Volts podcasts that I can say with certainty that a bus-sized lithium ion battery does not cost anywhere near $500,000. You could literally buy both a diesel bus and a Tesla Semi truck, and use the electric Semi truck to tow the diesel bus for much less than the cost of the battery bus.
This means that most of cost premium for making the bus electric has very little to do with the actual battery, and everything to do with the fact battery buses are produced in the U.S. in such tiny quantities that each individual bus is a bespoke product.
Right now, if I got to pick my one problem to solve, it would be "over-design," as they detailed for the fire exit requirements that are double those in the EU.
Not specifically a "transit" issue, but recently my town has been building ped crossings on the main stroad. Colorado Dept of Transportation requirements cause these to cost $250,000 each. I've been watching Le Tour de France and there are crosswalks of all kinds. Even on the biggest roads, I guarantee none cost a 200K Euros! At the same time my town's basic crosswalk painting is so cheesy it lasts 3months, and the stripes are short and narrow and... At a non-profit they used state grants to replace some 15 year old EV chargers. State requirements for connectivity and whatever increased the cost 10x and the things break down all the time.
In any case I love these interviews with transit and planning wonks. They seem much more focused on the problem at hand than many of the energy wonks who are putting geopolitics, and associated fantaises, and local politics, and anti-wind/solar/battery delusions above real techno-economics.
As a huge fan of the Volts podcast, I seldom hear anything on it with which I disagree, much less find offensive. But I was really put off by the comment from Stephanie Pollack that because she only gets an "asphalt slab" at her stop in Newton (or whatever western suburb she inhabits) people in the more working class communities of Somerville or Medford don't deserve stations that are well-designed (she referred to this as "Taj Mahal" facilities). This sounded elitist. Everyone in Boston who relies on the MBTA deserves stations that are comfortable and well-designed. Period.
This conversation did not include how the automotive lobby undoubtedly hastened the demise of mass transit to push America into automobile dependency.
The reference to a battery bus costing $1 million compared to $500,000 for a diesel bus shows just how broken the market for buses are in the U.S. That's a $500,000 cost premium for going electric, yet I've listened to enough Volts podcasts that I can say with certainty that a bus-sized lithium ion battery does not cost anywhere near $500,000. You could literally buy both a diesel bus and a Tesla Semi truck, and use the electric Semi truck to tow the diesel bus for much less than the cost of the battery bus.
This means that most of cost premium for making the bus electric has very little to do with the actual battery, and everything to do with the fact battery buses are produced in the U.S. in such tiny quantities that each individual bus is a bespoke product.
Right now, if I got to pick my one problem to solve, it would be "over-design," as they detailed for the fire exit requirements that are double those in the EU.
Not specifically a "transit" issue, but recently my town has been building ped crossings on the main stroad. Colorado Dept of Transportation requirements cause these to cost $250,000 each. I've been watching Le Tour de France and there are crosswalks of all kinds. Even on the biggest roads, I guarantee none cost a 200K Euros! At the same time my town's basic crosswalk painting is so cheesy it lasts 3months, and the stripes are short and narrow and... At a non-profit they used state grants to replace some 15 year old EV chargers. State requirements for connectivity and whatever increased the cost 10x and the things break down all the time.
In any case I love these interviews with transit and planning wonks. They seem much more focused on the problem at hand than many of the energy wonks who are putting geopolitics, and associated fantaises, and local politics, and anti-wind/solar/battery delusions above real techno-economics.
As a huge fan of the Volts podcast, I seldom hear anything on it with which I disagree, much less find offensive. But I was really put off by the comment from Stephanie Pollack that because she only gets an "asphalt slab" at her stop in Newton (or whatever western suburb she inhabits) people in the more working class communities of Somerville or Medford don't deserve stations that are well-designed (she referred to this as "Taj Mahal" facilities). This sounded elitist. Everyone in Boston who relies on the MBTA deserves stations that are comfortable and well-designed. Period.