City Utilities Transit will be replacing older fleet buses with two electric buses in late 2020. The benefits of the EBus Project include reducing energy consumption, reducing harmful emissions, and reducing direct carbon emissions.
“The replacement of four 35-foot low-floor fixed-route buses with two 35-foot low-floor electric buses will reduce our fleet’s usage of diesel fuel by nearly 36,000 gallons annually.” Said Matt Crawford – Director of Transit. “We will be able to eliminate 480 quarts of oil annually due to the reduced preventative maintenance. This is a savings of 432,000 gallons of diesel and 5,760 quarts of oil over the 12-year useful life of a fixed-route bus.”
The two replacement buses, manufactured by Gillig, will be battery-electric, and the first zero-emissions addition to the fixed-route fleet. The EBus Project replacement of four 35-foot low-floor fixed-route buses with two 35-foot low-floor electric buses will also reduce harmful emissions by 0.12 metric tons of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), 9.6 metric tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx), 3.1 metric tons of hydrocarbons (HC), and 37.2 metric tons of carbon monoxide (CO) emissions on an annual basis.
City Utilities currently leads the state in the commitment to renewables, with nearly 40% of our customer’s electrical demands met by renewable or zero-emission resources. Electrifying the transit fleet with these resources, makes this a true low-emissions project.
Through the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) Low or No Emission Vehicle Program, funding was received in the amount of $1.4 million dollars with additional funds available from Missouri Department of Natural Resources in the Volkswagen Trust settlement in the amount of $368,000. City Utilities will be funding the $1.8 million dollar project with just over $6,000 to cover the remaining costs. The total funding amount covers two EBus vehicles, two charging stations capable of four buses total, and training for service technicians. Delivery of the EBus vehicles is expected in December of 2020.