Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t goldminor; Who could have guessed electric vehicles might struggle in cold climates?
Charge pending on electric bus fleet: City awarded grant for bus barn roof in preparation for addition of seven new electric buses
Beep beep, new roof coming through.
By Clarise LarsonWednesday, August 31, 2022 2:56pm
Capital Transit just got one stop closer on its road to electrifying Juneau’s public transportation.
The City and Borough of Juneau’s municipal bus service, Capital Transit, announced last week that it is set to be awarded close to $2.3 million from a federal grant which will go toward infrastructure replacement to aid the city’s long-term goal of electrifying its transit system moving forward.
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Trouble in electric paradise
Currently, Capital Transit only owns one electric bus — which has been in service since April 2021 and is the state’s first municipally operated electric bus — out of its 18 bus fleet.
The 40-foot Proterra bus has experienced mechanical problems since its launch and was not holding battery charges long enough to complete an entire route during this winter’s cold weather, but Koch said the city is looking at different electric bus manufacturers for the new buses.
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Of course, we’ve already seen electric vehicles struggle in cold climates. As WUWT reported in our 2021 article Tesla: Nothing Says Customer Satisfaction Like 30Kg of Dynamite, EVs appear to be horribly unsuitable for places which suffer cold winters.
It is not just the reduced range. Deep frost conditions appear to irreparably wreck electric vehicle batteries, unless the batteries are kept warm, so one slip-up, like forgetting to plug your EV in at night, or a prolonged power failure, and you could have a dead EV. Likely this would become a doubly unpleasant experience when you read the fine print in your insurance exemptions.
