California’s SamTrans orders 108 hydrogen fuel cell buses from New Flyer; largest fuel-cell electric contract yet for company
22 October 2024
New Flyer of America Inc. (New Flyer), a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc. (NFI) and a leader in zero-emission electric mobility solutions, announced a new firm order for 108 zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell-electric Xcelsior CHARGE FC 40-foot transit buses from San Mateo County Transit (SamTrans), marking the largest single fuel cell bus order in New Flyer’s history.
The contract for 108 buses was added to New Flyer’s backlog in Q2 2024, with firm orders placed over the second and third quarters.
SamTrans provides transportation services in San Mateo County, extending its reach to San Francisco and Palo Alto, California, delivering close to nine million bus rides across an extensive network of 74 bus routes.
This investment in fuel cell-electric buses is made possible through combined funding from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), California’s Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) vouchers, and local funds.
The hydrogen buses will replace SamTrans’ diesel buses and support the agency’s transition to a zero-emission fleet to meet sustainability targets defined by the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB’s) Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) regulation, requiring agencies to transition bus fleets to 100% zero-emission by 2040. This purchase will also help SamTrans to meet the USgreenhouse gas emissions targets of 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030.
NFI has electric vehicles operating (or on order) in more than 150 cities in six countries. NFI offers the widest range of zero-emission battery and fuel cell-electric buses and coaches, and its vehicles have completed more than 195 million EV service miles.
How would they afford to fuel these with H2? They don’t intend to. According to Google they have over 250 miles of range from the 432kWh battery. Most metro busses will not drive more than 150 miles per day. Although marketed as a FC bus by “battery dominant” they mean it is a FC range extended bus.
The New Flyer Xcelsior CHARGE FC 40 plug-in bus has a battery nameplate capacity of 432 kWh, with a usable capacity of 90%. The bus can charge to full capacity in 1.6 hours using a 200 kWh ESS. It can also be rapidly recharged for one hour of operation with six minutes of charging at 300 kW.
Posted by: Gasbag | 22 October 2024 at 07:44 AM