Abstract
This paper provides a business analysis of the application of on-line electric vehicle (OLEV) to bus rapid transit (BRT), comparing it with three other vehicle types: compressed natural gas (CNG), diesel, and battery-electric. It first develops a model to estimate the total cost of ownership for a nine-year span for each of the vehicle types under different scenarios of cruising speed, station frequency, and vehicle headway. These results indicate that OLEV becomes more attractive the more “BRT-like” the system becomes: smaller vehicle headways, lower station frequency, and higher speeds. In many cases the analysis shows that OLEV is the most cost-effective alternative. This work then combines these quantitative results with more qualitative concerns and external factors to perform a strengths, weaknesses opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to consider external and qualitative concerns, especially pertaining to system location and uncertain future costs and technology capabilities. It concludes that installing OLEV for the proposed BRT route in the new Sejong City area is an attractive option, blending good system characteristics with government and institutional support, and it should act as a necessary stepping-stone to larger scale deployment.
KEYWORDS – Business Analysis, Bus Rapid Transit, OLEV, Dynamic Wireless Charging