Austin Capital Metro talks batteries over electric bus contract
The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is pressing on with its fleet electrification plan despite a number of kinks yet to be fully ironed out.
After the agency’s board of directors approved a contract with New Flyer of America on Monday for purchase of six electric buses, Dottie Watkins, vice president of bus operations and maintenance, said that, for a few reasons, it may be a number of years before the new buses are fully up to speed.
With range being a top consideration for transit vehicles, Watkins said the agency is “not quite there on battery-electric buses.”
While the six New Flyer buses have a range of 120-150 miles per charge – sufficient for about 40 percent of the agency’s routes – the agency’s longest routes currently span around 275 miles over the course of a day. Watkins said electric buses with larger batteries coming out in the next couple of years should have a range closer to 200 miles, but that would still only cover up to 75 percent of the routes.
Read more: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2019/08/capital-metro-talks-batteries-over-electric-bus-contract/
