Today, we had our new 2-year study about decision support for the introduction of electric buses granted by the Swedish Energy Agency!
Previous studies and investigations in the bus industry have shown a need for customized procurement of electric buses that include charging infrastructure, minimize risk for the parties involved, and lead to a sustainable future. The project therefore wants to develop and test new sustainability-oriented decision support for procurement of public transport with electric buses. This is achieved by:
1. Based on existing projects with electric buses, identifying real yearly averages of costs, energy use and availability
2. Measuring noise (including from acceleration) from several electric buses, and based on the results, propose a new EU noise measurement standard for buses that includes acceleration
3. Integrating results from 1 and 2 in a process and business model for procurement
4. Testing and further developing an electric bus system selection method for procurement feasibility studies.

The SustainTrans research team will lead the study and Chalmers University is the main partner regarding testing and development of the system selection method. Key partners are Electrodriving Scandinavia, bus operators, municipalities, public transport authorities, bus manufacturer.

Further reading: press release from BTH in Swedish and an article in the Swedish magazine ‘Bussmagasinet’