The City of Turku with its subsidiaries Turun Kaupunkiliikenne Oy (the public transport operator) and Turku Energia (power supplier) cooperated in the pilot stage of adopting electric vehicles (EVs) to the local and regional traffic. The procurement consisted of six electric buses, quick charge stations for each end of the line and an overnight charging station for the depot. A total of 94 drivers were trained in using the new buses.

The main actions taken in this Use Case are:

1. Piloting the first electric bus line;
2. Planning for extension of electric bus lines;
3. Development of charging solutions and analyses of use;
4.  Marketing and communication including campaigns.

The pilot also includes an EV research project in cooperation with Turku University of Applied Sciences. The goal of the project is to identify and propose solutions for technical and operative bottlenecks of expanding electric bus operations. The research covers a wide variety of topics:

• Specifications and procurement of electric buses and the charging infrastructure.
• Innovative business and contract models for (service) procurement.
• Adapting bus line planning and optimizing models for EV operation.
• Finding solutions for accurate measurement of energy consumption.
• Using data from onboard and charging systems to plan future choice of buses.
• Effect of driver training to cost of operation.
• Reliability and total cost of ownership (TCO) of EVs versus diesel vehicles.