Proterra Catalyst 3001

Location: New Hampshire Avenue at Sunderland Place, NW, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: District Department of Transportation
Date of Photo: September 7, 2018

Yesterday, I shared a photo of a vehicle type that will not be serving passengers in the new decade.  Today, we will turn our focus towards the future and look at a vehicle that I expect to be serving more and more people in the next ten years.  

There has been a longstanding desire in the transit world to operate electric vehicles due to their energy efficiencies.  While electric powered trolley buses or trackless trollies have been around for many years, I think it is only recently that bus manufacturers have developed rubber tired battery powered vehicles that do not need to run under a wire all or most of the time.  Although 99 percent of the world’s electric buses currently operate in China, they are gradually becoming more widespread elsewhere.  While it is a far cry from the 421,000 electric buses in China as of 2019, there are about 300 electric buses serving transit agencies in the United States and that number is growing.  In fact, as of November 2019, American demand for electric buses has exceeded manufacturing capacity for the first time, and only five states (Arkansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia) do not have a single transit agency planning to procure electric buses if they have not done so already.

I’ll hopefully write about my first time on board one of DDOT’s Proterra electric buses that have been a part of the DC Circulator fleet since 2018 sometime soon.  But in the meantime, enjoy one of the first photos I took of an electric Circulator bus in late 2018.

Have you been on an electric bus yet?  If so, where was it and what did you think of it?  Post about it in the comments below!  

For more photos of DC Circulator Proterra buses, please click here.