For vehicles which are in nearly continuous use, the capital costs are essentially irrelevant next to fuel and maintenance, both of which are far cheaper for EVs. It might take a few years to pay for replacements.

Right, electrics can be optimized to a usage. Some buses could have capacitor banks recharged at every stop. That sort of tactic would be nonsense for a daily driver.

There is that in my city. A new bus line able to recharge bus capacitors at some stops. It looked like pretty hard to implement but it’s working interestingly well.

> I'm not sure batteries will support vehicles being in motion 10 consecutive hours. And in some categories (busses, delivery bikes) it will be as lot more than 10 hours a day.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is buying 300 all-electric buses:

* https://www.electrive.com/2021/04/27/toronto-to-procure-300-...

They currently have 60 as part of a pilot project, in addition to a whole bunch of hybrids.

It seems to be a case of pay now, or pay later:

> Besides the infrastructure cost of chargers, each electric bus can cost $200,000 to $500,000 more per bus than an average $750,000 diesel bus.

> Case acknowledges that is "significantly" more expensive, but it is offset by fuel savings over time, as electricity costs are cheaper. Because the electric buses have fewer parts than diesel buses, maintenance costs are also about 25 per cent lower and the buses are expected to be more reliable.

* https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/electric-buses-transit-1.582...

City buses seem like a great use case for battery swapping!

Depends a lot on the exact bus system, but thinking loosely about San Francisco: maybe retrofitting ~10 terminals with swap+recharge capabilities means most routes only need 1-2 hours of juice between swaps?