Proterra Inc has been selected by the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services as a vendor to supply zero-emission battery-electric transit buses and charging infrastructure under the state’s regional Cooperative Purchasing Contract. Proterra was chosen to help streamline local transit agencies’ access to vehicles that best meet their specific transit... Read more →

Juneau residents will begin to see Capital Transit’s first battery-electric bus in service and on the road tomorrow. This is the first electric bus owned and operated by a public transit agency in Alaska. Capital Transit unveiled the bus, manufactured in California by Proterra, during an event on Monday. Juneau... Read more →

Solaris will supply an additional six electric Solaris buses to Szczecin. The total value of the order settled at more than PLN 16.5 million (US$4.33 million). Last year Solaris won a tender of the city of Szczecin for the supply of 8 articulated electric Urbino buses. The company also placed... Read more →

Lightning eMotors signed a new exclusive partnership with Soderholm Bus & Mobility in Hawaii to provide Lightning eMotors’ zero-emission powertrains for their commercial van and bus customers. Soderholm Bus & Mobility, headquartered on Oahu, is the Nº 1 bus distributor in the Pacific Islands and has sold more buses over... Read more →

Adding another school district fleet electrification program to its growing list of customers, AMPLY Power has been selected to manage the charging of electric school buses for the Palermo Union Elementary School District in Northern California. The zero-emission commitment from the school significantly lowers operating and fuel costs for the... Read more →

Irizar reports that 44 Irizar ie electric buses are headed to Burgas, Bulgaria. It is the first electromobility project in that city—the fourth largest in the country—and one of the largest in Bulgaria to date. Burgas Bus—a Bulgarian public transport operator with more than 130 vehicles in its fleet—will be... Read more →

UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps launched a £120-million scheme to enable local transport authorities to roll out zero-emission buses. The funding is being made available through the Zero Emission Buses Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme. The funding will deliver up to 500 zero-emission buses, supporting the government’s wider commitment to introduce... Read more →

Blue Bird Corp., one of the largest school bus makers in the US, has joined a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Audi of America, Applied Information, and Temple, Inc., to deploy cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology aimed at helping reduce vehicle hazards that school children face every year. The Fulton County School System,... Read more →

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) is rapidly electrifying its fleet to meet sustainability goals set under the Green New Deal for Los Angeles. To meet the unique demands of these new zero-emission buses, LADOT is partnering with GMV Syncromatics and ViriCiti to develop a fleet management and maintenance... Read more →

The UK Government is awarding more than £54 million ($US$75 million) to three projects to advance the next generation of electric trucks and hydrogen buses. The 3 projects are: £31.9 million (US$44.3 million) to develop electric propulsion systems for heavy goods vehicles in Cwmbran, Wales. The EPIC project led by... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc. announced that the Spokane Transit Authority (STA) unveiled its first 60-foot, five-door electric Xcelsior CHARGE City Line bus, as part of a contract that New Flyer won in June 2020. The contract, not previously announced by New Flyer, was for ten 60-foot and two 40-foot... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc. unveiled its next-generation battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE NG heavy-duty transit bus. Having surpassed 4.5 million service miles with its battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE and fuel cell-electric Xcelsior CHARGE H2 buses, New Flyer applied the best of zero-emission design, performance, research, and ingenuity to develop its newest electric... Read more →

BYD announced that its all-new K8M, an innovative 35-foot zero-emission public transit bus, set a high scoring record in the Federal Transit Administration Model Bus Testing Program in Altoona, Pa. The K8M record-setting performance included high marks in structural durability, reliability, maintainability, and safety. As a result, US transit agencies... Read more →

In March 2020, in a tender launched by German operator Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH (RVK), Solaris Bus & Coach was selected to supply 15 Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen buses. The first of the hydrogen vehicles has been delivered and is being tested in the RVK branch in Wermelskirchen in the Rheinisch-Bergisches... Read more →

In a government tender run by the Romanian Ministry for Public Works, Development, and Administration (Ministerul Lucrărilor Publice, Dezvoltării Și Administrației), with seven local towns and cities as beneficiaries, Solaris has been awarded an order for 123 out of 131 electric buses. The total value of the contract stands at... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems received follow-on purchase orders from Wrightbus, a leading bus OEM and Ballard partner headquartered in Northern Ireland, for a total of 50 fuel cell modules to power Fuel Cell Electric Buses (FCEBs) planned for deployment in a number of UK cities, including Birmingham, Aberdeen, London and Belfast.... Read more →

The Government of Canada plans to provide C$2.75 billion (US$2.17 billion) in funding over five years, starting in 2021, to enhance public transit systems and switch them to cleaner electrical power, including supporting the purchase of zero-emission public transit and school buses. This funding is part of an eight year,... Read more →

Moscow started to replace outdated diesel buses with electric buses in September 2018. There are now 600 electric buses on on 42 routes overall, and as replacements for traditional buses on 33 of those routes. Over the next 4 years, the city authorities are going to purhase 2675 more units... Read more →

Ocean View School District in Oxnard, California, has selected The Mobility House for its extensive fleet energy management expertise around the world to provide smart charging for the district’s new electric bus fleet project, construction for which is now complete. The pioneering project consists of four electric buses and four... Read more →

The Solaris Urbino 15 LE electric bus, i. e. the newest vehicle in Solaris’s zero-emission portfolio, is currently being tested by carriers in various Norwegian towns and cities. The bus, unveiled in October last year, will be shown off to both drivers and passengers. The tests in Norway are to... Read more →

BYD Japan, Keihan Bus and Kansai Electric Power announced a tripartite deal in Kyoto, Japan, which will see the three parties work together to help the city achieve Japan’s 2050 carbon neutrality target and build a carbon-free society. Beginning in 2021, Keihan Bus and Kansai Electric Power will launch the... Read more →

The Federal Transit Administration recently announced $180 million will be available through its competitive Low or No Emission (Low-No) Program; California-based BYD says it will help transit agencies navigate the application process. The Low-No program exists to support the nation’s transition to energy-efficient vehicles such as those manufactured in BYD’s... Read more →

The Anaheim Transportation Network (ATN) was awarded a $5-million grant to advance its effort to become California’s first all-electric transit operator. The grant, awarded by the California Energy Commission (CEC), will be used to acquire charging stations, batteries, and the other solar infrastructure required to support ATN’s MicroGrid and zero-emission... Read more →

ARBOC Specialty Vehicles, a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc., introduced its battery-electric low-floor purpose-built bus: the Equess CHARGE. Available in 30-foot and 35-foot models, the Equess CHARGE builds on ARBOC’s proven Equess transit bus platform, and utilizes the in-field electric vehicle technology from New Flyer of America, another NFI Group... Read more →

The Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) (Maryland) Board of Education approved a contract on Tuesday evening with Highland Electric Transportation, a provider of turnkey electric fleet solutions, to convert the MCPS school bus fleet to all-electric, starting with 326 school buses over the next four years. This project represents the... Read more →

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has placed an initial order for 10 Lion Electric LionC school buses. This order follows on Lion’s recent delivery of all-electric school buses to the Twin Rivers Unified School District in Sacramento. LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the United States, serving... Read more →

Solaris has just delivered three Urbino 18 electric buses to Bonn. It is the first contract for the manufacturer with Stadtwerke Bonn Bus und Bahn (SWB). The three delivered Urbino 18 electric buses are fueled solely by power derived from renewable sources. The future is electric. We stick to our... Read more →

Highland Electric Transportation, a provider of turnkey fleet solutions delivering the latest in zero-emission technologies to school districts and fleet managers, has raised $253 million to accelerate its growth. The financing was led by Vision Ridge Partners with participation by Fontinalis Partners and existing investors. Highland reduces the complexity of... Read more →

Berlin start-up ELO Mobility and the Fraunhofer Institute for Transport and Infrastructure Systems IVI are jointly developing a new generation of city buses with hydrogen drive technology as part of the Go4City (G4C) project. The Go4City project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. The official... Read more →

Canada-based Nova Bus, a member of the Volvo Group, recently was awarded a contract for 15 LFSe+, Nova Bus’ long range electric buses, by TransLink, Metro Vancouver’s transportation network. TransLink will be adding these to their two LFSe vehicles delivered in 2019 as part of the Canadian Consortium for Urban... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz is supplying 129 Citaro G hybrid 18m articulated buses to Belgium’s TEC Group. This is one of the largest orders for articulated buses in recent years. The vehicles will be delivered by summer of this year. The delivery also includes a comprehensive service contract valid for eight years. The... Read more →

The first charging station for EVs that uses energy storage based on second-life batteries from Irizar e-mobility is up and running. This charging point, developed by Repsol and Ibil, has been installed in a Repsol service station on the N-I road where it goes through the city of Tolosa in... Read more →

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has signed a new agreement with Clean Energy Fuels for an estimated 47.5 million gallons of its renewable natural gas (RNG) to fuel the US’ largest transit bus fleet. This agreement will mark the completion of Metro’s 5-year goal to transition its... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems announced purchase orders from Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. for 10 Ballard FCmove fuel cell modules to power 10 Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen buses planned for deployment with Arriva Nederland in the Province of Gelderland, the Netherlands later in 2021. (Earlier post.) FCmove, the latest platform for... Read more →

Harvard University recently purchased four Proterra battery-electric buses and electric infrastructure. The new buses will replace four, similarly sized biodiesel-powered vehicles, representing more than 30% of Harvard’s fleet. Each Proterra battery-electric transit bus is 35 feet long (similar in size to the current buses), has a seating capacity of 29,... Read more →

King County Metro in Washington state has awarded New Flyer an order for 20 additional 60' battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE heavy-duty transit buses (40 equivalent units or EUs). (Earlier post.) Metro is one of the ten largest transit agencies in the United States, providing more than 122 million annual passenger trips... Read more →

Leclanché SA has developed a modular, all-in-one, high-performance battery system optimized for powering new and retrofit hybrid and fully electric commercial vehicles. INT-39 Energy HV pack (INT-39 Energy) is a fully integrated product comprising Leclanché’s advanced M2 battery modules, powered by its high density and high life cycle 60 Ah... Read more →

New Flyer of America unveiled the Xcelsior AV automated transit bus, now in motion at Robotic Research, LLC in Maryland. The Xcelsior AV unveiling follows New Flyer’s launch of its Automated Technology Program first announced in May 2019, and the subsequent announcement of partnership with artificial intelligence and automation leader... Read more →

With a focus on its mission of sustainability for its residents, the City of Porterville, California is putting 12 electric micro-transit vans into service. The 12 vehicles, all Class 3 Lightning Electric Transit Vans, were developed by Lightning eMotors. The vans are built on Ford Transit 350 HD chassis and... Read more →

Solaris Bus & Coach and Dutch carrier Arriva Netherlands have signed an agreement for the delivery of 10 Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen buses. The 12-meter hydrogen buses will be delivered to the province of Gelderland in the course of this year. Arriva will start driving them in December 2021 in... Read more →

This spring, Blue Bird will begin production of its propane and gasoline Vision school buses integrating Ford’s all-new 7.3L V8 engine and a purpose-built fuel system designed specifically for school-bus application. The advanced fuel system technology was developed by ROUSH CleanTech, the same company that has manufactured more than 30,000... Read more →

A new, broad measure of “energy transition investment”, compiled by BloombergNEF (BNEF), shows that the world committed a record $501.3 billion to decarbonization in 2020, beating the previous year by 9% despite the economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. BNEF’s analysis shows that companies, governments and households invested $303.5... Read more →

Autobus Groupe Séguin, a transportation operator headquartered in Laval, Québec, has ordered 60 LionC electric school buses over a five-year period. Autobus Séguin will integrate the all-electric buses into the company’s current fleet of vehicles, one of the largest in Québec. This order is the single largest to date in... Read more →

Ekoenergetyka-Polska has won a tender issued by RATP—a state-owned public transport operator and maintainer headquartered in Paris—and is implementing one of the largest contracts for charging infrastructure for electric buses in Europe. Ekoenergetyka-Polska will deliver 274 devices of 90 kW each. The charging stations for two Paris depots—Center Bus de... Read more →

Denmark leads the way when it comes to putting zero-emission urban buses on the streets in Europe, with 78% of new vehicles being electric, according to the latest data from green NGO Transport & Environment. In Luxembourg and the Netherlands about two-thirds of new buses were zero-emissions. T&E said other... Read more →

Brasov, Romania has ordered 25 Solaris Trollino 18 trolleybuses. Solaris will supply the articulated, low-floor and zero-emission trolleybuses to the customer within 12 months. The value of the contract amounts to about €19 million. In July 2020, Solaris completed deliveries under an earlier order for 26 vehicles of this type.... Read more →

Moscow-based NPP ITELMA, a leading developer and manufacturer of vehicle and transportation electronics, has presented a full powertrain system for electric bus manufacturers. The system will also make it possible to upfit any modern bus to an electric bus, the company said. The developers promise to reduce energy consumption of... Read more →

The Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAAC), headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has converted options to order six more forty-foot battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE heavy-duty transit buses from New Flyer. The purchase, supported by Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Low or No Emission (Low-No) Grant Program funds, will replace end-of-life diesel vehicles with... Read more →

Octillion Power Systems, a global provider of advanced lithium-ion batteries, is providing battery packs for all-electric motorcoaches and city transit buses offered by ABC Companies and Lightning eMotors. The order marks the company’s first time supplying batteries for motorcoaches and buses in North America. With its entry into the motorcoach... Read more →

Bus manufacturer Solaris has joined the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance, an initiative led by the European Commission. The aim of the Alliance is to scale-up, by 2030, the production and deployment of hydrogen as a fuel produced by means of low-emission technologies and renewable energy sources. The European Clean Hydrogen... Read more →