Investigating the use of hydrogen and battery electric vehicles for public transport: A technical, economical and environmental assessment

More and more territories are looking at alternatives to diesel for their public transport to decarbonise their energy mix. Electricity and hydrogen, among the most popular alternatives, are analysed in this article on the basis of various technical, economic and environmental criteria. The consumption of these vehicles is first estimated and the feasibility of their implementation validated in terms of range and recharging time. The economic criterion then evaluated is the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the vehicle fleet, and the environmental criterion is the global warming potential (GWP) of a vehicle, taking into account the life cycle of the main technologies that compose it as well as the vehicle's operating phase. Here, coaches are analysed for the case study of Reunion Island. If the technical feasibility concludes that it is impossible to use a fleet entirely composed of electric vehicles, a fleet composed only of hydrogen vehicles would involve high TCO and GWP. A balance must be struck and improvements in vehicle consumption can be made to reduce the overall impact.