New Flyer XE40 1001
Location: Friendship Heights Station, Chevy Chase, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: October 24, 2019
The number of electric buses in the United States has been increasing in recent years, and 2022 is only going to continue that trend. In mid-2021, the American Public Transportation Association estimated that about 1,000 of nearly 73,000 public buses was powered by electricity. The number of agencies that have purchased electric buses for their fleets continues to rise, and some have committed to only purchasing electric buses in order to make their fleets emission free.
In the Washington, DC area, WMATA, the largest agency in the region, currently has a single electric bus that entered service in 2016. Pre-pandemic, it operated during rush hours only on routes in Northwest Washington. After receiving some public criticism from the likes of the Sierra Club for not adopting a plan to convert the fleet to electric vehicles sooner, in December, WMATA announced a plan to convert its fleet to be fully electric vehicles by 2045. Ten buses purchased as part of the agency’s Battery-Electric Bus Test and Evaluation Program are expected to enter service at the Shepherd Parkway Division later this year.
WMATA isn’t the only agency with electric buses in the DC area. DC Circulator has been operating a fleet of Proterra electric buses since May 2018. Ride On’s first electric buses, also Proterras, entered service in the fall of 2020. DASH in Alexandria, VA introduced New Flyer XE40s in the fall of 2020 and Proterras during the summer of 2021. Finally, in Frederick, MD, TransIT purchased five Gillig Advantage low floor buses that were converted to operate using battery electric power in 2016 and an additional four BYD K7M buses in 2020.
Although the upfront cost of purchasing an electric bus is higher than that of a standard diesel or diesel-electric hybrid, electric buses often have much lower maintenance costs. Therefore, over the life of an electric bus, its “true cost” is lower than that of conventionally powered buses.
For more photos of WMATA’s New Flyer XE40 Buses, please click here.