Where’d that special Charlotte bus come from on the vice president’s visit?
As Vice President Kamala Harris spoke in Charlotte Thursday, behind her stood a brand new electric-powered bus, the city’s first in what leaders hope will be an entire electric fleet.
The bus behind Harris, made by GILLIG, arrived Wednesday. Not even John Lewis, the CEO of the Charlotte Area Transit System, had stepped inside before the vice president.
“Secret Service locked it down,” he said. But there will be plenty more opportunities to see those buses as CATS moves forward with its all-electric goal.
Over the next several months, CATS plans to purchase a total of 18 buses from two companies. They’ll spend the next year trying them out, seeing which company’s buses are the most reliable and efficient.
After that, the real transition will begin. CATS plans to purchase 30 to 35 new electric buses every year until its diesel-powered fleet is replaced, and is working with a subsidiary of Duke Energy to install a network of charging locations. The bus that Harris toured on Thursday will be on the streets within the next few weeks, Lewis said.
He estimates that the entire electric transition will take six to eight years. Currently, CATS has 320 buses in its fleet, and Lewis said they want to stagger their purchases so their new buses are of varying age.
In the long run, though, he said electric buses will save money, improve air quality and move the city closer to its goal of being a zero-emissions city by 2050.
Federal support, like the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Harris was in Charlotte to promote, could help a great deal, he said.
Having an administration willing to offset some of those costs “makes my job a lot easier.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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