Comparison of battery technologies, size, and charging strategies for inter-city in–motion-charging buses

Abstract

The growth of suburbs is a challenge for public transport, and new tools are needed to electrify suburban and intercity bus lines sustainably. In-motion-charging (IMC) buses combine the advantages of both trolleybuses and electric buses. This paper analyses a case of using IMC buses on a 17-km-long intercity route service between Arnhem and Wageningen in the Netherlands. The analysis covers different traction battery technologies, sizes, and charging strategies to find the economically optimal solution. The study was carried out using a numerical model of an IMC bus, which was validated and tuned based on year-round experimental recordings obtained from Arnhem trolleybuses. The model outputs were next used to analyse the batteries ageing under specific charging-discharging current profiles. The analysis shows that the most long-term cost-effective solution for the considered case consists of using merged IMC and opportunity charging as well as a 90 kWh LTO battery, whose expected lifetime would be more than 14 years.