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Braedan0786 t1_j1rsy41 wrote

Reply to comment by NoodleShak in High utility charges could derail MTA’s $1.1B electric bus transition by PichuLovy

The article is a typical Post hit job. They interviewed someone or multiple people who work for the MTA and didn’t provide any context to the quotes. Yes, surge pricing on electricity can be expensive. The problem is the article did nothing to discuss the actual costs involved or if the MTA be able to get some kind of deal on electricity pricing.

Typical of the Post - let’s fear-monger and get quotes from people who work for the org. In question and throw out some numbers without any actual cost comparison. The lack of maintenance is a good point, too. How much money would the MTA save by cutting out 75%+ of maintenance costs? Zero discussion of that, of course.

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NoodleShak t1_j1rukzv wrote

The way I’m understanding it (I’m not a car guy or engineer) we basically remove that giant exploding machine we have that is usually the most complex part of any vehicle and we replace a lot of it with a battery. I’m probably really simplifying this but i do know that my friend does little to no maintenance on his leaf. I know buses are a differnt animal but I think it’s close enough to come to a conclusion.

I do know that for right now we don’t have a great infrastructure for recycling the batteries but as cities turn to electric that will naturally solve itself to cut costs.

Also surge pricing is a non issue to me. Teslas in ideal conditions can go from 250-300 miles you’re average car can roughly do the same on a tank of gas but that tank costs 60+ dollars to fill up. Electricity costs a fourth of that.

Last bit sorry didn’t intend this to be long winded. Add in regenerative breaking systems such as those found in Prius’s we further reduce the need for 0 to full charging since we take advantage of the generated kinetic energy of the bus.

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Braedan0786 t1_j1rv1zp wrote

And another comment on range: the 250-300 mile range you cite is based on continual travel at highway speeds. My EV (a 2022 Tesla Model 3 Performance) would get way more than 300 miles of range at the average speeds NYC buses travel. Like, substantially more range at those speeds.

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NoodleShak t1_j1rvfzd wrote

I could argue that the bus is substantially heavier than your car but that’s offset by the much larger battery and regenerative charging.

In short we’ve assured ourselves in five comments this post article is nonsense. Well met fellow New Yorker.

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