XL Fleet Corp. and ARBOC Specialty Vehicles, a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc., one of the world’s leading independent global bus manufacturers, have announced a partnership to electrify ARBOC Freedom low floor buses with the XL Hybrid (XLH) electric propulsion system. The wheelchair-accessible buses are built on the GM 4500... Read more →

New Flyer of America has received a firm contract from the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) for 10 zero-emission battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE 40-foot transit buses. OCTA serves 34 cities within Orange County, California, providing transportation to the state’s third-largest county and supporting nearly 40 million passengers per year. The purchase... Read more →

Philadelphia’s public media organization WHYY, also the local PBS and NPR station, reports that the regional public transportation authority SEPTA has sidelined its entire fleet of 25 Proterra electric buses since February 2020. In an initial report in September 2020, unnamed sources within the agency blamed a defect in the... Read more →

De Lijn, the public transport operator (PTO) in the Flemish part of Belgium, is ordering 44 new articulated plug-in e-hybrid buses; further, the operator confirmed the upgrade of 280 if its current hybrid buses into e-hybrids. Their extended zero-emission range will contribute significantly towards improving air quality in the cities... Read more →

Unitrans, the University of California, Davis transit system, has purchased six Xcelsior CHARGE battery-electric, forty-foot heavy-duty transit buses from NFI subsidiary New Flyer of America Inc. UC Davis utilized the California Department of General Services (DGS) contract for the procurement. NFI’s New Flyer was selected by DGS as an approved... Read more →

CaetanoBus, the Portuguese bus manufacturing company, and Toyota announced the co-branding of the battery electric city bus, the e.City Gold, and the fuel cell electric bus, the H2.City Gold. CaetanoBus e.City Gold and H2.City Gold Since 2019, Toyota Motor Europe (TME) has integrated Toyota’s fuel cell technology, including fuel cell... Read more →

The city of Moscow, Russia is halting the purchase of diesel buses for its passenger transport fleet. Starting this year, by the decision of the Mayor of Moscow, we will not buy diesel buses, except for transportation in a special mode. Only electric buses. We will also install about 200... Read more →

Mayor Eric Garcetti launched the second phase of the Metro NextGen Bus Plan, a strategy to boost ridership through faster, more reliable, and more frequent service as riders return to the system. The second phase of the NextGen Bus Plan brings hundreds of new bus trips on weekdays and weekends,... Read more →

The US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced approximately $182 million in funding for low- and no-emissions buses and the facilities that support them. The project selections were approved as part of the Low- or No-Emission (Low-No) Grant program, which funds the deployment of zero-emission and low-emission... Read more →

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched England’s first hydrogen double-decker buses. The 20 new buses are the first of their kind to be launched in England; the new hydrogen fuel cell double decker buses are first being introduced on route 7 between East Acton and Oxford Circus. The buses... Read more →

As of June 2021, Moscow’s fleet of electric buses has reached 600 vehicles and will expand to 1,000 by the end of the year—more than in any other European city. Most of the battery packs and propulsion equipment for the Russian capital’s electric buses are made by Drive Electro, which... Read more →

Proterra Inc and Miami-Dade County announced a major fleet electrification project with the County acquiring 42 Proterra ZX5+ electric transit buses, featuring a total of 19 MWh of battery storage capacity, along with plans to install 75 Proterra chargers across three bus depots. The first electric buses are slated to... Read more →

The Zaragoza, Spain City Council is ordering 68 Irizar e-mobility electric buses—51 12-meter units and 17 articulated. These buses will be progressively incorporated into the service from the last half of next year and will be operated by Avanza. This is the largest electric bus project to date for Irizar... Read more →

Autonomous electric buses could make short-range transit safer and more efficient; however, articulated buses or those with passenger trailers require too much energy and are not flexible enough to accommodate the highly fluctuating passenger numbers. The solution could be platooning, in which several vehicles follow each other at short distances,... Read more →

The Alameda Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) has awarded New Flyer of America Inc. an order for 20 zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell-electric 40-foot Xcelsior CHARGE H2 heavy-duty transit buses. The purchase was made through California’s State Cooperative Procurement, for which New Flyer was selected as a top-scoring approved supplier... Read more →

Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL), a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc. (NFI), unveiled its first electric three-axle double deck bus for North America. The Enviro500EV CHARGE is the North American all-electric version of the world’s best-selling double deck bus, and is produced by NFI subsidiary Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL). An electric... Read more →

Rome-based transport company, Atac, will receive 100 Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrid buses. The city buses are to be delivered in three lots between June and the autumn of this year. They are part of an ambitious investment program to modernize the bus fleet of the transport company in Italy’s capital. One... Read more →

BYD is introducing a battery-electric Type D school bus. With length options of 35, 38, and 40 feet, BYD’s Type D battery-electric school bus can seat up to 84 and can be equipped with an ADA liftgate. The bus has a range of up to 155 miles on a single... Read more →

AMPLY Power is working with Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions to expand fleet electrification offerings, including the first commercially available combination solar canopy and overhead electric vehicle charging solution covered by a power purchase agreement (PPA) leasing and financing model. The field-tested solution, enabled by the patent-pending Pantograph In-Depot Equipment (PIDE)... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz has received a large order for 54 fully electric eCitaro buses from Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVB). The decision was made following a tender and intensive testing of several vehicles. The Swiss transport company wants to electrify its bus routes fully in just two steps by 2027. The eCitaro forms the... Read more →

First Student, the largest student transportation provider in North America, is ordering 260 all-electric LionC school buses from the Lion Electric Company. This is the largest order of school buses by a single customer in Lion’s history. The order will make First Student the largest operator of electric school buses... Read more →

New Urbino models running on hydrogen are about to join the fleet of electric buses of Solaris which have been serving as transport means for Bolzano residents for years. Solaris Bus & Coach has begun the delivery of vehicles under a deal signed in May 2019. Public transport operator SASA... Read more →

AlphaStruxure, a provider of Energy as a Service (EaaS) solutions, announced an agreement to deploy an integrated microgrid and electric bus charging infrastructure project for Montgomery County, Maryland. The project will enable at least 44 buses in Ride On Montgomery County’s transit fleet to transition from diesel to electric, advancing... Read more →

Motor Coach Industries (MCI), a subsidiary of NFI Group, unveiled its new battery-electric commuter coach, the D45 CRT LE CHARGE, and also launched its new D series of coaches. Leveraging high-torque electric drive systems for operation at highway speeds and plug-in battery charging to 100% in less than three hours,... Read more →

Solaris Bus & Coach has signed a deal for the supply of eight zero-emission electric buses of the Urbino 12 electric type with the city of Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland and the operator Miejski Zakład Komunikacji in Gorzów Wielkopolski. These will be the first electric buses to be deployed in Gorzów... Read more →

Plug Power Inc. announced a strategic framework agreement with BAE Systems, a premier supplier and integrator of low- and zero-emission electric propulsion systems and application integration. Under the framework, Plug Power and BAE Systems will collaborate to supply zero-emissions powertrains to heavy-duty transit bus OEMs in North America integrating Plug... Read more →

Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) is growing its battery-electric fleet with the purchase of 10 K11M 60-foot articulated buses and six K7M 30-foot buses. AVTA, which serves northern Los Angeles County and portions of southern Kern County, was the first transit agency in North America to make the decision to... Read more →

Canada-based Lion Electric Company, a leading manufacturer of all-electric medium- and heavy-duty urban vehicles, has selected Joliet, Ill., for the construction of its US manufacturing facility. The new facility will represent the largest dedicated production site for all-electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in the US and Lion’s biggest footprint in... Read more →

In a new report produced at the request of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) concluded that a the entire US transit fleet could transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2035 at a cost of between $56.22 billion and... Read more →

Stockton Unified School District in Stockton, Calif., has partnered with The Mobility House to deploy smart charging strategy and management solutions for the district’s zero-emission fleet project, which is now operational and scheduled to transport students to schools throughout the district. Completed in less than one year, the electric school... Read more →

Thomas Built Buses (TBB), a leading manufacturer of school buses in North America; its exclusive Virginia dealer, Sonny Merryman Inc.; and Proterra celebrated the delivery of the 50th Saf-T-Liner C2 Jouley battery-electric school bus. The milestone delivery went to Loudon County Public Schools in Virginia as part of phase one... Read more →

NFI Group subsidiary Motor Coach Industries (MCI) has unveiled the new zero-emission, battery-electric J4500 CHARGE coach. An all-electric version of the industry’s best-selling J series tour and charter luxury coaches, the J4500 CHARGE leverages EV technology from New Flyer and delivers more than 200 miles of range, while also delivering... Read more →

The company In-der-City-Bus, which is in charge of public transport in Frankfurt, Germany, has awarded a tender for 13 hydrogen buses to Solaris. The Solaris Urbino 12 hydrogen buses are to be deployed on target routes in 2022. The Urbino hydrogen buses are powered by a 70 kW fuel cell... Read more →

Auckland (NZ) Transport is beginning a 2-year trial of a 3-axle hydrogen fuel cell bus.The trial will assess operational performance how operating costs compare to diesel and electric buses of similar configurations. The bus carries 43 seated and 31 standing adults. The bus was built by Global Bus Ventures in... Read more →

Loop Energy, a developer and manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell-based solutions, has received and fulfilled an order for ten units of the company’s proprietary eFlow fuel cell modules from Beijing IN-Power for integration by Skywell New Energy Vehicles Group (Skywell) in Nanjing, China. The shipment marks the second phase of... Read more →

Moscow is already the largest operator of electric buses in Europe with 600 e-buses in operation on its routes. The city plans to purchase another 1600 electric buses over next few years, with the goal of replacing the diesel fleet. Now, Russia-based heavy-duty truck vehicle manufacturer KAMAZ has opened a... Read more →

Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid (EMT), the largest public transport operator in Spain and the second largest in Europe, recently awarded the tender for the acquisition of 520 new Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, as well for the purchase of 50 new... Read more →

Allison Transmission’s eGen Flex, its next generation electric hybrid propulsion solution (earlier post), will be put into revenue service at New York City Transit (NYCT) in May. The eGen Flex system—comprising the drive unit, inverter and rechargeable energy storage system—includes full electric drive capability for up to 10 miles, depending... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz is switching to a more powerful generation of lithium-ion batteries in its electric buses (earlier post). The first eCitaro G articulated buses have now been delivered to Hanover’s transport operator, ÜSTRA. They are part of a large-scale order and also an important element of a plan to electrify bus... Read more →

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 →