King County's $130M electric bus purchase 'one of the leading moves in zero emissions for transit
King County Metro has committed to spend about $50 million on 40 battery-electric buses to be delivered in 2021, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced Thursday.
The agency has plans to buy another 80 battery-electric buses that would arrive in fall 2022, further advancing its goal to use a zero-emissions bus fleet by 2040. Metro estimates the 120 buses would cost $130 million in total.
King County Metro is purchasing the buses from New Flyer, which has supplied the agency with more than 1,800 buses since 1979, according to a news release. More than half of those have been hybrid-electric or zero-emission, including the trolley electric buses that connect to wires and run through much of downtown.
The new buses won’t require that infrastructure to run and will be able to stay on-route for up to 18 hours without recharging, according to New Flyer Director of Sustainable Transportation David Warren. The purchase follows a one-year program to test four of the battery-electric buses to ensure they met King County Metro’s performance requirements.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2020/01/30/king-countys-130m-electric-bus-purchase-called.html?ana=e_me_prem&j=90460701&t=Morning&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVRZMU1EaGxaR0V5T1dVeCIsInQiOiJcL2lWMFBlekF0SUNpY25uek8rdHFGcFhZbHpQdzlcLzZ4MzFhV3JQR25CVW5ycjBpYVNHSlF1clRaN2JvSTZZdGJ4YUtSTTh1emVzQ0VLNFVXaUUxT0N0c09yckJvYXcwWTNXUWNcL0Q1clUrbVpaczdhZitOS09WWXdEeml1SVJhaCJ9
