Greensboro becomes first city in Southeast to launch fleet of electric buses
Greensboro bus riders, do we have a surprise for you. The Greensboro Transit Authority officially launched its first fleet of electric buses Thursday morning, making the city the very first in the Southeast region to have them.
“We’re pleased to see Greensboro on the cutting edge here, being one of the first cities in the country and the first city in North Carolina to put in this fleet of electric buses,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. “The benefits of these electric buses are that they are cleaner, they are more efficient, they help stimulate job growth and they are healthier.”
Not only are they good for the environment, they are also good for the city’s wallet.
“The fact that there’s zero tailpipe emissions, you don’t see any black smoke pouring out of the back of these buses, and they’re very quiet. I think that’s the first that our riders are noticing, like wow this is such a quiet, smooth ride now,” Greensboro Transportation Director, Adam Fischer said. “We estimate that each electric bus will save about $350,000 over the life cycle of the bus. Multiple that by 50 buses that we plan to convert over to all electric buses and that’s quite a saving for us.”
Currently the city has six electric buses on the streets equipped with USB charging stations and handicap access. Fischer said they will have 10 buses up and running by the end of February.
“I think citizens will enjoy it a lot more. They’re very quiet, they’re very clean, they’re very pleasant to be in and they’re going to get people where they need to go without burning diesel fuel, which can be dirty and can be expensive,” Cooper said.
As the diesel buses wear out they will be replaced by electric buses. Fischer’s goal is to replace all diesel buses in the next five years.
They will have 16 electric buses on the streets of Greensboro by the end of this year.