Economic characteristics of city bus operation with a mixed fleet: the influence of electric buses

Abstract

The change in operation cost is a major concern of bus operators for accelerating bus electrification. The present paper investigated the cost structure of bus fleets with different compositions of electric and diesel buses. Short-run variable and long-run total cost translog functions for mixed fleets were both developed. A panel data set consisting of 58 city bus operators in Taiwan for the 2013–2019 period was formed. The analysis results revealed that introducing a small number of electric buses to a fleet reduced the short-run variable cost of large operators but increased those of small and medium-sized operators. Notably, the overcapitalization of electric buses shifted to undercapitalization when the size of electric bus fleets reached a specific scale. Enhancing the operation scale can reduce the average cost of a bus fleet and enable operators to take advantage of the lower operating cost of electric buses relative to diesel buses.

KEYWORDS:

• Electric bus
• translog cost function
• fleet composition
• economy of capital utilisation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the ROC Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 110-2410-H-A49-055) for partial financial support.

Author statement

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: Dr. Yi-Shih Chung initiated and designed the study. He conducted the analysis and wrote the first draft. Dr. Yu-Chiun Chiou provided the data, reviewed, and revised the manuscript. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The standardised format is a list of cost categories; the total cost is divided into 18 categories such as driver, fuel, and maintenance expenses.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan: [Grant Number MOST 110-2410-H-A49-055].