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Comment by ZeroGravitas | Hacker News Reader

If you take the Model S and scale it up then people have said the battery is half the cost of the car, and therefore the battery alone is roughly the cost of a normal car. I don't think it would be suprising if the same is true for the semi.

There's at least one rural delivery man who bought a Tesla Model S and paid for it by using the mileage payments he gets for his job. So as long as your route fits, the same kind of high up front cost being amortised over time applies. The more miles you drive the better the economics works due to lower fuel/maintenance costs.

Non-Tesla companies are making pretty much the same pitch in regards to battery busses, again targetting fleet managers who have the spreadsheets in place already to plan and manage this kind of expenditure.

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Urban buses are very different and a more obvious target. Stop and go slower avg speed regular short routes with a home base to charge.

Much smaller batteries and taking advantage of regenerative braking.

It is an obvious use case for batteries right now.

A relative is super gung ho for electric buses. The evangelist / champion at an energy company. His vacations are scheduled around various unveiling events, so he can get pics. Kinda reminds me of train enthusiasts.

Any way. Per what cousin tells me, I think short haul urban centric anything is ripe for electric vehicles. Delivery trucks, buses big and small, service vehicles. Maybe even tow trucks (wreckers).

And what's the cost of those busses plus charging infrastructure and the risk of new technology versus overhead power lines like what's deployed throughout much of San Francisco, for example?

How effective is regenerative breaking?

Oddly good.

My commute is ~25 miles one way. In my Leaf, going 65+ mph, I usually burn 25-35 miles off the charge. If I'm in stop-and-go traffic half the way I usually burn 10-15 miles for the same trip.

I've taken quite a few trips where I arrived at my destination with the same amount of battery as when I left. I've yet to arrive with more charge but maybe one day...

That’s probably due more to the aerodynamic drag of doing >65mph than it is the regen braking in stop-and-go traffic. Mileage efficiency takes a big drop in our Leaf above 60mph.

EDIT: as a side note, efficiency takes a big drop in your ICE vehicle, too, I just notice it more in the Leaf with its gee-whiz telemetry.

For buses it is very effective, since they stop every few blocks, whether the stop signal is red or not. It also makes for a huge saving on brake repair and replacement, which you can imagine is a big expense for buses.

Also city buses usually drive under 200 miles a day and then sit overnight so you can have relatively small batteries. All in all, it is hard to think of a type of vehicle where battery power makes more economic sense, and gives you more advantages over ICE.

It depends a lot on how you're driving. Numbers as high as 70% have been published, but I believe that requires the deceleration profile to be ideal, and that might not be the most comfortable one for passengers.

There's at least one rural delivery man who bought a Tesla Model S and paid for it by using the mileage payments he gets for his job.

There's a specific tax deduction for commercial vehicles that cost more than $50000.

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