Electric vehicles are known to be able to travel a smaller distance in the cold.
Rīgas Satiksme's new buses can travel 280 kilometers a day in warm weather. They currently travel up to 180 kilometers on the routes and return to the park with an energy reserve of around 20-30%.
"At this time we are collecting data and looking at how the specific weather affects bus performance. It's both frost and snow, a layer of snow will appear on the roads, rolling resistance will increase. All of this will affect the performance of the bus now in winter, and therefore we will also assess what it looks like and how we will operate them in the future," explained Andris Lubāns, Board Member of Rīgas Satiksme.
A big drop in efficiency is not expected, with most of the battery being spent on cabin heating during winter. For that new buses have a diesel heating system.
Electric buses will also start serving more routes from January 4. These will be two new routes on business days and four new on holiday. The number of electric buses operated will also increase, with 11 vehicles as of January 4 and 13 vehicles as of the weekend.
