UC Irvine acquiring 20 electric buses from BYD to convert fleet to all-electric
27 January 2017
The University of California, Irvine is poised to be the first college campus in the US to convert its buses to an all-electric fleet. The student-funded and -operated Anteater Express shuttle service is acquiring 20 buses from BYD for $15 million.
The vehicles are being built at the company’s Lancaster plant to roll onto campus for the 2017-18 academic year, joining a hydrogen electric bus to provide more than 2 million pollution-free rides annually. Undergraduates voted to pay up to $40 per quarter to the Associated Students of UCI to cover the bus purchase and other costs. Individual rides are free.
While other schools have added some alternative energy transportation in recent years, UCI is the first to completely scrap its traditional diesel fuel-powered buses, officials said.
California leading the world again! Good going!
Posted by: HarveyD | 27 January 2017 at 08:50 AM
For longer life and safer batteries, these buses should be fitted with ZEBRA batteries that have similar capacity to lithium ones but have far longer cycle lives. And yes they should have a small engine that can slowly charge the battery for emergency operation; The engine can be designed to run on bio-ethanol even if it is never needed. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 28 January 2017 at 04:02 AM