ViriCiti released a report providing precise data on the average consumption of electric buses and the average distance driven on a fully charged battery. The research is the first of its kind to analyze the performance of such a large sample of buses (+100) consistently over several seasons and months, and to look separately at how much 40- and 60 foot-buses consume in cold, normal, and high temperatures.
Temperature is known to be one of the main factors influencing electric bus range and consumption. ViriCiti found that the consumption of 40-foot buses goes up by 14% in cold temperatures on average. High temperatures also increase the consumption by 9%.
Similar effects were noticed on the 60-foot buses. Data showed the average consumption increasing by 21% during cold weather, and by 12% when the temperature is high.
The study indicates that the average distance driven of the 40-foot buses analyzed is 135.47 miles per day. For the 60-foot buses, the average is 102.10 miles per day. To contextualize these numbers, empirical field data from various Dutch operators working with ViriCiti shows that with optimized infrastructure and operational processes, electric buses can run as much as diesel buses (up to 311 miles/day).
With over 3,500 buses and chargers across the world, ViriCiti is the market leader in electric bus telematics in Europe and the U.S. To get to these results, ViriCiti gathered, anonymized, and analyzed data from 79 40-foot buses and 27 60-foot buses active across seven cities in the Netherlands and linked to the ViriCiti dashboard. The buses are produced by various manufacturers.
The daily temperatures were calculated on average and divided into three categories: cold temperatures (-10 – 14 °C, or 14 – 57 °F average), normal (15 – 19 °C, or 58 – 67 °F average), and high (20 – 29 °C, or 68 – 84 °F average). The calculation method can be found in the full report.
The full research report is available here.
