The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, which serves Charged’s home city of St Petersburg, Florida, hopes to add 60 electric buses to its fleet over the next five years. The PSTA board has unanimously approved an agreement with bus-maker Gillig to provide the 60 new e-buses.

The procurement, which is expected to cost $80 million, including charging infrastructure, will be subject to the availability of funds. PSTA is depending on the implementation of the $1.2-trillion federal infrastructure bill, which includes $39 billion in funding for public transit.

“We will be [purchasing the buses] based on the amount of grant funding we have in place at any given time,” said PSTA Chief Finance Officer Debbie Leous. “We will be placing the first order on this procurement by buying two years’ worth of buses. We will be seeing 12 electric buses received by 2023 and another 12 by the end of 2024.”

PSTA bought its first two e-buses in 2017, and currently operates six. The agency uses both overnight charging at depots and en route charging stations, including an inductive charging station built by Utah-based WAVE. Local utility Duke Energy has contributed to funding the charging infrastructure. 

PSTA estimates that each of its electric buses saves around $20,000 per year in fuel costs.

Source: The Catalyst