Trollybuses have their place, when you want a trolley, but the slopes too steep for metal on metal. Because you don’t have a track for ground, they either need a double pantograph or 2 trolley poles, which adds some complexity and can cause delays if they come off.
Battery (and ICE) buses are cheaper and more flexible since they don’t require pantographs.
Battery buses have their own issues: recharge time/complexity of exchanging batteries, range, battery lifespan, heating/AC. These don’t make battery buses infeasible, but they’ve caused significant issues for some implementations.
For instance, moscow replaced their trolleys with battery buses. Because running the heater during winter would deplete too much of the battery, they added gas heaters.
There’s a few cities that have tried battery trollybuses, that charge the battery when a pantograph is available. This seems like the worst of both worlds.
Trollybuses have their place, when you want a trolley, but the slopes too steep for metal on metal. Because you don’t have a track for ground, they either need a double pantograph or 2 trolley poles, which adds some complexity and can cause delays if they come off.
Battery (and ICE) buses are cheaper and more flexible since they don’t require pantographs.
Battery buses have their own issues: recharge time/complexity of exchanging batteries, range, battery lifespan, heating/AC. These don’t make battery buses infeasible, but they’ve caused significant issues for some implementations.
For instance, moscow replaced their trolleys with battery buses. Because running the heater during winter would deplete too much of the battery, they added gas heaters.
There’s a few cities that have tried battery trollybuses, that charge the battery when a pantograph is available. This seems like the worst of both worlds.