More than two dozen electric Proterra buses first unveiled by the city of Philadelphia in 2016 are already out of operation, according to a WHYY investigation.
The entire fleet of Proterra buses was removed from the roads by SEPTA, the city’s transit authority, in February 2020 due to both structural and logistical problems—the weight of the powerful battery was cracking the vehicles’ chassis, and the battery life was insufficient for the city’s bus routes. The city raised the issues with Proterra, which failed to adequately address the city’s concerns.
The city paid $24 million for the 25 new Proterra buses, subsidized in part by a $2.6 million federal grant. Philadelphia defended the investment with claims that the electric buses would require less maintenance than standard combustion engine counterparts.
h/t Scissor
I guess they forgot to hire (real engineers)
Go green, then broke.
Dustoff – They only hired engineers who aced their critical race theory exams. As they learned, STEM is racist according to CRT.
There will be more problems in the future with all sorts of stuff, like failing bridges, skyscrapers, road overpasses, and buses when they are designed by the product of our education system by dumbing down the STEM programs.
In these fields participation ribbons don’t cut it. You actually have to know the science and engineering, but that’s not going to happen as these programs are racist according to the social scientists of the day and have to be more inclusive whether you can do math, or not like adding, subtracting, and other higher forms of math.
The big problem in the future … and it’s already upon us … is a shortage of electricity.
The left doesn’t understand where electricity comes from. Most of it is produced by burning coal or natural gas. Some is generated by hydro … AKA water falls. Amost none of it is produced by windmills or solar.
As the left gets rid of more and more viable energy sources and methods … we will have trouble keeping our fucking lights on. Never mind charging your $130,000 Tesla.
J West … You’re right it is already upon us and there are few EVs on the road yet.
Alberta forced to use reserves to balance power system for 2nd time this July
Global News’ solution is to double down on the green energy – their goal is “to ensure “enough affordable, secure and decarbonized electricity supply to power our net-zero future.””
There is a little red box for comments at the bottom of the article. SDA readers should enlighten Global readers of the definition of insanity.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/8028929/alberta-energy-emergency-alert-reserves-july/amp/
Partly, J West. The part that they miss is that you don’t design the grid for normal flows when all is well. You design it for -40 degrees, no wind, no sun, and 1 or 2 of your biggest producers are down. You still need to supply power or people will die.
Part of the green ethos is not building in “overcapacity”. That’s the killer here – we have learned over the last couple of centuries that shit happens, and that when shit happens you need to have extra supplies available or the whole network can fail. Some things are too important to be where you can “save money”.
RL
Most bang on comment of the DAY. As one who has toiled in the trades and later as a Senior Inspector 42 yrs….just perfect. Most these days have zero clue about Trig or Calculus….and would be hard pressed to know how to operate a Pencil.
BA would approve I’m Sure..!!
I train junior engineers in some of the higher functions in our CAD software 3D design program. They’re used to using CAD to make pretty pictures. Many are shocked they ask me how to figure a spoil crest at repose angles (37 degrees) and I target the center of rotation on the toe line (looking at it perpendicularly), set the viewer to look down at a 37 degree angle, and then move the crest at constant elevation until it’s snapping to the toe line. “Wow, how you look at it can be a tool?” They were planning to do 20 minutes of calculating (multiple base points and changing perpendicular angles). My method is visual, intuitive (after they’ve seen it once) and takes about 5 seconds per point.
Not everything needs to be solved on a spreadsheet. Many of the brighter ones now ask me “how would you approach this?” when they’re given a “new” problem. There is hope for the next generation.
Perhaps Voltswagon will do better?
Watt’s my ride?
Here it comes, plugging along.
Not going far, it’s a short circuit.
Since they have a limited range, one will find out that there’s no place like ohm.
Oh booo!
BAD – Great “dad joke”.
That’s an old joke. Don’t you have any current ones?
Amp still waiting…
What you and BA fail to understand is that ONLY old people will “get” your old man jokes. Jokes which require some BASIC knowledge of Electricity. Basic knowledge of … science.
Perhaps if your jokes involved Rainbows, Unicorns, or Trnasgendered birthing people … ?
Kenji, I’ll resist making jokes about transformers and transistors.
Think of how dull SDA would be if I stopped making my dumb jokes faraday……
So which one of the Three Stooges are you, Mho?
And have you been inducted into the Electricity Hall of Fame?
Let’s phase it, I have no potential to rectify my conduct.
Watt are you talking about? No, wait, that’s too old school. We can’t rely on tons for this, we need to go metric.
Only with New Tonnes can we be forceful enough to make the difference that is needed. That’s it, stay positive! And remember to vote for Ron in the upcoming election. With Elect Ron we can have plentiful power.
And flux everyone who disagrees.
And the Great Green Grift goes on. Any other breaking news? Do dogs still bark? Does water still run downhill?
Since 1832, electric vehicles have been competing directly against horses, steam, and the internal combustion engine. You can pick out the stupidest people you know, simply by identifying the ones who talk about “battery breakthroughs” and such.
Imagine someone so brain dead, that in the same sentence, they will argue that one mature technology is about to get a “battery breakthrough”, but the second mature technology no advances are possible.
I had a guy explain to me that the future of green energy looked great because someone had invented an electrical generator that used magnetism.
I stupidly tried to explain the obvious to him but he was a True Believer.
You know how you sometimes get into a conversation with a vegetable and the only way out is just to walk away?
“It’s hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it’s damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.” – Bill Murray
Ask him which rivers he’s planning to dam so that the water can spin the magnet. He might only be a 5 watt, but there still might be a way to get an idea in there.
Those are the same people who “believe” their new Tesla’s will last forever, and require NO maintenance … because they have so FEW moving parts (like those old, clunky ICE cars). Yes, they’ve actually BOUGHT the scheme, err … dream … with their own treasure. That’s all well and fine, when it’s the economic ‘elites’ spending their abundant treasure on these 19th century contraptions … but when the poor and middle class are FORCED to buy these pigs in pokes … the results will be interesting. I predict a parallel Mad Max existence right alongside all the elites in Palo Alto. None of Atherton’s gardeners will be arriving at the gated compounds in their used Tesla’s with a diminished range of 62 miles. Suddenly, those easily replaceable moving parts will be preferred to the disposable Tesla’s
Try asking those same people if they will still use the same phone with the same battery in 5 years. If they try to act like you’re crazy, ask why they’ll invest 10x more in a car with the same limitations.
Or just point and laugh. But they won’t understand the point and laugh.
Whenever I read about the failures of the green people I have say ….Bwahahahahaha. I told you so.
I read about the 30 to 50 mile service range and inability to have charging stations at either end of the line. Then I read that their stock had dropped about 30%. Then I thought that this is the type of thing that is so bad, and such a huge waste of money, it’s gotta have Canadians interested in it.
Sure as sh_t…
…”We are excited to partner with leading transit agencies from Edmonton to Toronto to accelerate the transition to 100 percent clean transportation for all…”
…”Proterra along with our partners Edmonton Transit Service, or ETS, unveiled the first 21 Proterra battery-electric buses, one of the largest purchases of electric buses in Canadian history.”
https://torontoglobal.ca/TG-Blog/February-2021/How-Proterra-s-Electric-Buses-are-Picking-Up-Speed
As a native Pennsylvanian who grew up near (but not in) Filthadelphia, I take great amusement in hearing what these morons are up to from time to time. I no longer live anywhere near that blighted city. They’ve gone from lunacy to idiocy ever since they tried to burn down part of a residential block over the MOVE “crisis”. This is just the latest, which only the sane could see coming.
‘Highway to Hell’, but ‘green, green they say on the far side of the hill’.
From Global via the MSN.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/ottawa-plans-to-become-1st-canadian-city-with-a-fully-electric-bus-fleet-by-2036/ar-AAKNjXd#:~:text=Ottawa%20has%20already%20purchased%20four%20electric%20buses%20from,an%20additional%2074%2040-foot%20zero-emission%20buses%20this%20year.
“OC Transpo plans to use initial funding commitments from the feds’ electric bus fund to purchase an additional 74 40-foot zero-emission buses this year. The transit agency will include the proposal in its 2022 budget plans, with these buses starting service in 2023 if approved.
By 2027, the city says it can phase 450 electric buses total into service, with a completely transitioned fleet targeted for 2036. OC Transpo currently has a fleet of 939 buses.”
Ahh yes, my city, Ottawa, where Economic Ignorance, Anal Sex and Plain Stupidity are at the top of your Curriculum Vitae.
Bang together some pile of garbage, price it at an astronomical level, slap a ‘green’ label on it, and peddle it to idiots.
It doesn’t have to pass any standard other than the green label.
The drama majors who flunked every science and math class they attended will give you millions of tax dollars for it.
Cost to Philadelphia per electric bus – about $1 million each
Cost per diesel bus – about $500,000 each
The town of Oakville, just west of Toronto, has announced plans to replace 57 of its existing diesel buses with fully battery-electric buses over the next six years, in addition to purchasing 16 additional electric buses to expand its transit fleet. The project, with a price tag of more than $66 million, is backstopped by multiple levels of government funding
Oakville only has a population of 200,000 but clearly have (borrowed) money to burn.
https://electricautonomy.ca/2020/08/12/oakville-purchase-electric-buses/
The mayors of 12 major cities from around the world have taken a landmark step to increase the use of zero-emission public transportation late last month. Mayors of London, Paris, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Quito, Vancouver, Mexico City, Milan, Seattle, Auckland, and Cape Town all signed the C40 Fossil-Fuel-Free Streets Declaration, which pledges that they will add only fully electric buses to their cities’ public transportation from 2025.
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1113794_these-12-cities-will-buy-only-electric-buses-from-2025-on-more-expected-to-join
These people are idiots.