MTA buys 60 fully electric buses for $1 million each; on path to biggest e-bus fleet in North America, officials say
They’re the million-dollar buses of the future — and MTA honchos say they’ll put the agency on the path to own the biggest electric battery powered bus fleet in North America.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday approved the purchase of 60 fully electric buses for a $64 million, part of the agency’s larger effort to phase out all its fossil fuel-guzzling buses by 2040.
The new e-buses come from the company New Flyer, which in 2018 leased five 60-foot electric battery-powered buses that the MTA ran in a pilot program on Midtown’s slow-crawling M42 route.
The new buses will bring the MTA’s fleet of electric buses to 75. Officials plan to buy another 475 electric battery buses through the agency’s 2020-2024 capital plan.
“These buses are second or third generation from the original leased buses,” said interim NYC Transit president Craig Cipriano. “By the time the capital program ends... we’ll be the largest [fleet of electric buses] in North America, no doubt.”
Each of the new $1 million buses are 40 feet long. Under the contract, New Flyer will maintain them and train NYC Transit crews on how to work on them. The buses will be charged overnight and can run up to 120 miles per day, Cipriano said.
Transit honchos earlier this year sought to purchase only 45 fully electric buses, but increased the commitment after the agency reached $39 million agreement with the New York Power Authority to install at least 50 overhead electric bus chargers in four depots across the city.
Electric buses for U.S. transit systems are still in their infancy — and the MTA is paying a premium for the new tech.
The agency in 2020 approved a $141 million contract from the company NOVA for 209 diesel-powered 40-foot buses, a price of roughly $670,000 per bus.
The first five of the New Flyer electric buses are scheduled to arrive in New York in Sept. 2022. They’ll be tested by MTA crews before New Flyer ships the remaining 55.
The infrastructure bill signed by President Biden this week makes $5 billion of federal money available for transit agencies across the country to buy zero or low emissions buses. Cipriano said he’s looking into how those funds can subsidize the purchase of even more electric buses.
