Abstract Manager

The transportation sector is responsible for roughly 21% of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, and in response many Canadian cities are planning to electrify their transit fleets to fight climate change. The Toronto Transit Commission, one of Canada’s largest public transit agencies, began trialing electric buses as part of their Green Bus Technology Plan in 2019. This deployment, which consists of a total of 60 electric buses procured from three separate electric bus manufacturers, is one of North America’s largest trials. The National Research Council of Canada, Transport Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada have partnered with Toronto Transit Commission to leverage the data and experience of integrating and operating electric buses in a cold climate. A very large and complex dataset has been collected from the Toronto trial through the first two years of in-service operation, including telematics data, charging data, weather station data and post pandemic mobility. The data review, processing and analytical methods to determine the most important factors impacting electric bus range will be discussed. A long-term goal of the research is to leverage the Toronto experience, along with other electric bus deployments to develop technical references to support Canadian transit agencies planning to electrify their bus fleet. Proposed elements of the technical reference manual will also be presented.