Optimal Vehicle Performance Parameters Selection for Electric Bus Routes

Electric buses (EBs) have the characteristics of zero emission and low noise, which plays an important role in reducing air and noise pollution and improving air quality in metropolitan areas. Choosing the appropriate electric buses type to meet the passenger demand and own interests is an important practical problem faced by many bus companies, among many types of electric buses. This paper conducts an optimization study on the vehicle and charger performance parameters selection for electric bus routes, with the objectives of minimizing the total operating cost of the bus company, including the annual average electric bus purchase cost, annual average charging facilities cost, and annual charging cost of electric bus fleet, and considers the passenger travel demand and integrity of bus service. Finally, two real electric bus routes are taken as an example to validate the proposed method. Results show that the optimized scheme is more conducive to saving the operation cost of bus companies compared with the current scheme.