On one hand, battery busses require lithium and rare earth metals which needs to be mined from a relatively short supply, as well as lots of fancy chemical processing which I’d wager produces plenty of byproducts, and batteries have a limited lifespan before needing to be replaced. On the other hand, trolley busses (the kind that gets power from overhead wires) require extensive infrastructure in the form of wires and poles, which require tons of metal (though much more abundant steel and aluminium) to produce and energy to install and maintain, and the wires also wear out from friction and also need to be replaced from time to time. Anyone know any papers comparing the sustainability of these two technologies? I’m also interested in how the wire-to-wheel energy efficiencies compare between them.