By P Gosselin
This site here reports that Oslo, Norway’s new electric buses didn’t fare very well during the recent cold. The capital city’s public transport ended up “paralyzed”.
The buses were advertised to have a range of 250 km…but then reality hit!
“Oslo’s brand new fleet of electric buses is not designed for these temperatures – their batteries are failing miserably in the icy cold,” reports aussiedlerbote.de/.
100 million euro fiasco
The city of Oslo took delivery of 183 new electric buses last April with the aim of becoming “emissions-free”. But instead the city has become mobility free. What looked good on paper, didn’t work out well in reality.
“The range of the electric buses decreases drastically in the cold. The batteries run out more quickly,” according to sources. “…with the onset of winter, the weaknesses of the electric vehicles are becoming apparent: although a range of 250 kilometers is actually advertised, the buses sometimes simply break down.”
It’s reported that the contract volume for the buses was 100 million euros.
Cheaper, but doesn’t work
According to Reuters here, last year, Sirin Stav, “Vice-Mayor responsible for environment and transport,” said the buses would “save the city money over the long term” and: “The maintenance is cheaper, it’s also cheaper for the operators of the electric buses.”
“All in all, this is a win-win situation,” Stav added, and so “encouraged other cities to follow Oslo’s example.”
After these recent wintertime performance results, that definitely will be a hard sell.
“The range of the electric buses decreases drastically in the cold. The batteries run out more quickly,”
Not that it wasn’t known before, what a surprise 😀 😀
The bus in the photo at the top has a door in the “off” side. More ways to get out when the battery self-ignites? The articulated bus in the German newspaper doesn’t though.
Trolleybuses are cheap, reliable and long lasting. But apparently they aren’t trendy enough, even the hybrid ones, for high-end virtue signalling.
One again, it just goes to show that you can’t legislate physics & chemistry :)) Imagine that!
The busses have a range of 250 km (downhill on a warm summer’s day). What is so alarming about this is that the outcome described was already known and predictable before a contract was ever signed to buy these white elephants. Other civic governments are continuing to do the same in spite of all the evidence this is a sink hole for money out of which will come precious few if any benefits. We need to ask ourselves how we keep electing and appointing people so clearly out of touch with reality.
“The city of Oslo took delivery of 183 new electric buses last April with the aim of becoming “emissions-free”.”
The buses probably worked well through spring and summer when the weather is relatively mild, but problems became apparent with the onset of winter.
Even the batteries used to start ICE vehicles tend to have trouble in winter. The city planners in Oslo, which is not known for a tropical climate, should have planned for a test run by buying a few buses in October or November, and making the purchase of more buses contingent on the results of winter performance.
I read somewhere that Greta Thunberg drives an all-electric Nissan Leaf. If its battery is like those of the Oslo buses, she may not go far from Stockholm all winter.
Well now, who would have thought it would get really cold in Norway during the winter and there by significantly effect battery performance? I would like to think that cities like Trondheim would not follow suit but based on the IQ level displayed so far, one has to wonder.
I worked in Oslo in January 1997, the office was located on the Langkaia overlooking the Børvika. Most mornings a small harbour boat would sail past breaking the sea ice. That was a cold city.
Is this news being covered in Boulder, Boston, California and other e-Bus utopias?
Elsewhere the news is cold.
story tip
China’s Cold Blast to Put Power Supplies Under Huge Pressure (yahoo.com)
More good news.
Why did the citizens of Oslo vote for such an expensive and radical proposition? They did vote, right?
Oslo tends to have mild temperatures compared to many cities. The min temperature in December according to Google is -4.7C or 24F. The article doesn’t say what the temperature was during the cold snap but I would hope busses could run at 24F.
Maybe I missed it, but what were the exact temperatures during this cold snap. From the picture, it looks as though the streets were wet, so some melting was occurring probably from ice-melters laid down on the pavement, and I’d bet the mercury was no lower than minus-5C= 23-above zero F. How reliable would these buses be in places where daytime winter highs average minus-12C=10F and overnight lows are typically minus25C=minus 13F?
Well, that saving energy plan is working after all.
I think the Lutefisk has turned bad.
Oh ye of little faith!
Mining firm digs Australia’s first electric excavator (msn.com)
Here in the US, the Philadelphia SEPTA system was left holding the bag by current EPA head, and multi-million dollar Proterra investor, Jennifer Granholm.
SEPTA may lose the $24 million it spent on structurally flawed Proterra electric battery buses now that the troubled manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy.
The 25 buses were pulled from Philadelphia’s streets in January 2020 after six months when SEPTA found cracks in their frames and other problems. One of the electric battery buses burst into flames late last year in a South Philly depot.
Doesn’t it always?
A week ago it got down to -14 C. That’s cold, but it’s not really cold for a city at 60 degrees latitude. Under -20 C is not unheard of .
How could they not know this? Did they not test out these buses out on a small scale for a year or two beforehand?
Who’da thunk that a tropical town like Oslo would ever suffer cold temps?