The company that runs the public bus services in Oslo, Norway is called Ruter. It plans to have a whopping 320 all-electric buses in service by the end of this year, which the company’s CEO calls a “great victory for the environment.” While that is debatable, guess who these electric buses are not a great victory for? Yeah, people who need to ride the bus when it’s cold outside.
Last week, 50 out of the city’s fleet of 183 buses were taken out of service, and their routes were canceled. Sorry, commuters who rely on the bus to get to work! Looks like you’re walkin’ because your political leaders are a bunch of idiot weather cultists.
Plus, judging by the fact that they only have 183 buses in the fleet, it doesn’t look like they’re going to make that goal of owning 320 of them by the end of 2023, which is just a few days away. Maybe that’s a good thing, though.
The following day, an additional 90 of the buses were pulled off the streets, and their routes were canceled. The reason, of course, is that daytime highs in Oslo have been around minus 12 degrees Fahrenheit.
As any fifth grader could tell you, batteries just can’t hold a charge in really cold temperatures. Not even ones that have a 500-kWh battery pack and a supposed range of about 155 miles, which is what the Ruter buses have during warm temperatures.
A genius communications manager at Ruter says, “The buses run out of power more quickly. We are now registering what happens day by day, and then we will see how we can improve this in the future.”
We have a suggestion for how they could permanently solve this otherwise unsolvable problem. It’s called… diesel!
