Study of heating solutions for electric buses

Electric buses are now a reality on our roads. The European Union climate goals enhance public transport companies to invest in electric vehicles. This is the case of the STIB which announced the replacement of its current fleet for a 100% electric fleet by 2030. The main market barriers for widespread deployment of electric buses are still high acquisition cost and limited operation range. Heating and air conditioning system is the second most consuming system after the electric motor itself. If the cabin is heated by an electric resistance heater, which is tempting since batteries are already on board, the driving range can be reduced of more than 50% under extreme conditions. Nowadays, electric buses are often equipped with a diesel heater to cope with this range limitation. However, one can ask himself what is the point to switch from traditional buses to electric ones if diesel is still burned. The purpose of this study is to estimate the heating demand of an electric bus and to compare several alternative heating systems such as heat pump, latent heat storage or natural gas heater in order to propose a solution to the range reduction issue.