Economic characteristics of city bus operation with a mixed fleet: the influence of electric buses
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2024
Subject Area
place - asia, mode - bus, infrastructure - vehicle, infrastructure - fleet management, technology - alternative fuels, economics - operating costs
Keywords
Electric bus, translog cost function, fleet composition, economy of capital utilisation
Abstract
The change in operation cost is a major concern of bus operators for accelerating bus electrification. The present paper investigated the cost structure of bus fleets with different compositions of electric and diesel buses. Short-run variable and long-run total cost translog functions for mixed fleets were both developed. A panel data set consisting of 58 city bus operators in Taiwan for the 2013–2019 period was formed. The analysis results revealed that introducing a small number of electric buses to a fleet reduced the short-run variable cost of large operators but increased those of small and medium-sized operators. Notably, the overcapitalization of electric buses shifted to undercapitalization when the size of electric bus fleets reached a specific scale. Enhancing the operation scale can reduce the average cost of a bus fleet and enable operators to take advantage of the lower operating cost of electric buses relative to diesel buses.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Taylor&Francis, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Chung, Y. S., & Chiou, Y. C. (2024). Economic characteristics of city bus operation with a mixed fleet: the influence of electric buses. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science, 20(3), 2192308.
