*1.2. Aim of the Paper*

This paper addresses the needs and challenges described earlier. There is not one solution of electric buses which can always be assumed to be the best, and there are many factors which influence when a certain type of electric bus is cost effective or not. The goal of this paper is to present a cost model which can model the main mechanisms that influence the costs of electric buses when different routes and timetables are compared. Besides calculating costs, the model can also help explain why and how different factors influence the costs, and thus make it easier to find ways to reduce costs. The model can be used for many types of electric buses, but in this paper, it is only used to analyse electric buses mainly charged at the end stops. The costs for electric buses are also compared with buses powered by biofuels (gas and diesel) to find which type of routes of electric buses with end-stop charging are most cost effective.
