Whatcom Transportation Authority will steer clear of more new electric buses for now, aiming instead to add 11 hybrids to its fleet.
The WTA board of directors voted Thursday, April 6, to apply for a grant to buy hybrids rather than electrics in its next bus order. Public Information Officer Maureen McCarthy told board members at the Thursday morning meeting the transit agency didn’t have enough charging stations to add more electric buses in the near-term.
“We need 11 buses,” McCarthy said. “We do not have the charging facilities at this point, nor do we think we could implement them in time for those to be zero-emission buses.”
The 11 hybrids would replace three 2009 diesel buses and the eight original hybrid buses in WTA’s fleet, which were acquired in 2012.
In 2022, WTA board members embraced a transition to a zero-emission fleet. Last summer, the board even voted to change an order for eight new diesel buses to all-electric vehicles, after receiving funds from a pot of federal grant money that had been made richer by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
WTA could have as many as 15 electric buses by 2025, McCarthy said, with only 12 charging stations to go around.
“In my opinion, we are way in front of our skis with the amount of buses we have versus the infrastructure already (in place),” WTA Fleet and Facilities Director Andy Bowler told the board.
The board was sold on the hybrids as a “happy medium” between diesel and all-electric buses, as board member and Ferndale City Council member Ali Hawkinson put it.
Hawkinson noted that hybrids require no charging infrastructure and are more reliable than electric buses, which rated “poor” in reliability in McCarthy’s presentation to the board.
“I am really looking forward to the next round of electric buses too,” Hawkinson said, “because I want to see some of those work for us.”
In an email, McCarthy acknowledged WTA officials were “not yet satisfied with our two electric buses,” but “they are improving.”
“We hope they’ll be like our hybrid buses — which were also new technology when we bought them — and that after 12 to 18 months of trial and error, and working with the bus and engine manufacturers, we’ll get the kinks worked out,” McCarthy said.
Hybrid buses are less expensive than electrics — $900,000 compared to $1.2 million at current prices. And hybrids offer an environmental advantage over diesels. Hybrids use 24% less fuel and emit 49% less carbon dioxide than diesel-powered buses, according to WTA.
The transit agency also might have a better chance of winning a grant award for hybrids rather than electric buses because they already received an $8.9 million grant last year from the same federal program — the Low or No Emission Vehicle Program — to purchase eight new electrics.
WTA expects to hear by the end of June whether it will receive grant funding for the 11 new hybrids, McCarthy said.
