Development and performance evaluation of advanced electric bus transportation system

Electric buses have superior environmental performance because they emit no CO₂ and other exhaust gases while driving. However, in terms of more popularization of electric buses, it is essential to improve battery performance and realize user-friendliness of charging. To resolve these issues, a concept "short range running and frequent charging" was formulated. Under this approach, the authors have studied methods of greatly reducing the amount of large, heavy, and expensive battery. Research on non-contact inductive power supply (IPS) system has also been conducted as a way of improving charging convenience. A long-term operation test of electric buses was performed in Nagano prefecture as part of a project organized by the Japan Ministry of the Environment from 2011 to 2014. For this project the short-range frequent-charging type electric buses, "Waseda Electric Buses (WEBs)" were developed and tested on public roads to make clear the environmental performance and energy costs. WEB-3, one of the test vehicles, was driven for 41,724 km without any major problems and had advantages to reduce 28 - 42 % of CO₂ emissions and 57 - 64 % of energy costs, compared to conventional diesel buses. And it was estimated on Matlab simulation model that total energy consumption could be reduced by 11 % with vehicle weight reduction, modifications of drivetrain and other components.