Impact of Ambient Temperature on Electric Bus Energy Consumption in Cold Regions: Case Study of Meihekou City, China

Electric buses are more environment-friendly due to their low noise and less air pollution. However, their electricity consumption on the route will change with operating conditions. According to field investigations, ambient temperature is one main contributing factor to energy consumption of an electric bus. When the temperature is very low, the energy consumption would increase significantly. The operational performance of the electric bus in cold regions should be examined carefully based on real world operation data. Thus, we choose Meihekou city, China which belongs to cold regions to collect ambient temperature and corresponding electricity consumption for six buses on a bus line. We gathered ambient temperature and corresponding electricity consumption of a trip in one day for six buses around a year to test the relationship between them. Pearson Correlation Coefficient is applied to verify the relevance of ambient temperature and electricity consumption. Results prove a negative correlation between them. After that, temperature and corresponding electricity consumption of the whole day for a year are studied. Ultimately, results illustrate electricity consumption variation is diverse during different seasons, and the largest electricity consumption is in winter. Results also show that when ambient temperature range drops from [−2, 3] to [−10, −2], change of electricity consumption is unstable and violent, which rises from 0.45 to 0.7 kWh/km. However, when ambient temperature ranges from −10 to −25.5 °C, the fluctuation of electricity consumption is small, which is dispersed between 0.6 and 0.7 kWh/km.