Federal Transit Administration is working to help revamp public transportation systems with electric buses.
In August, the FTA announced that about $1.6 billion in grants has been made available to transit agencies, territories and states for the purchase of more than 1,800 new buses, including at least 1,100 zero-emission buses, according to a Nov. 21 Smart Cities Dive report.
“Electric buses are the hot, must-have this holiday season for cities large and small,” Pete Buttigieg, U.S. transportation secretary, said in the report.
Transit bus manufacturers' order books continue to grow, according to Smart Cities Dive. Volvo Group, which owns transit bus maker Nova Bus, said in its third-quarter report that demand for electric city buses “remains high.”
GILLIG, a California-based bus manufacturing company, said nearly half its customers are using FTA funding to purchase battery-electric buses, according to Smart Cities Dive. In its third-quarter letter to shareholders, bus and battery manufacturer Proterra said it expects the federal funding “to lead to significant growth in demand across the industry in the months ahead.”
Another example comes from New Flyer, with five transit bus factories in the U.S. and Canada, which reported a 17% increase in new firm and option orders in the third quarter, but said in its shareholder letter that “deliveries remain significantly lower than pre-COVID-19 levels due to global supply chain logistics challenges and related production inefficiencies,” Smart Cities Dive reported.
David Cooke, senior associate director at Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research, pointed out the importance of fleet electrification planning for transit agencies in the Smart Cities Drive report. Not only is a transition plan required by the FTA, but Cooke said the availability of buses, chargers and other necessary infrastructure hardware could come at different times, perhaps years apart.
“So I can’t underscore enough how important transition planning is,” Cooke said, according to Smart Cities Dive.
