Connect Transit is waiting on parts or other maintenance for all but one of its electric-powered buses. Of the transit agency’s 12 electric vehicles, 11 need accident repairs, are missing parts, or have computer malfunction issues.
The transit agency relies on electric battery manufacturer Proterra for these parts and repairs, but the missing parts have been delayed for months after the company filed for bankruptcy last summer.
The situation has put a strain on Connect Transit, forcing the agency to rely on a fleet of 21-year-old buses, and raises questions about additional zero-emission buses it’s expecting to receive.
“They are still working through some of the issues and we are just facing it. We get the buses rolling as we can,” Connect Transit general manager David Braun said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
Braun said due to its funding sources, the transit agency would need federal approval to switch to another supplier. That complicates any potential pivot away from Proterra, which has since been purchased by Phoenix Motorcars.
He also described electric vehicle manufacturing as an “immature industry,” adding where EVs are concerned, there is no suitable manufacturer other than Proterra.
“Every electric bus manufacturer has had its issues,” Braun said.
The federal government partially invests in public transit to “work out these bugs,” said Braun, before widespread commercial adoption of new technologies like electric vehicles. In the future, Braun thinks EV manufacturing will stabilize.
Braun said the key for the industry is to take what was learned from these delays and put “that education back into the manufacturing process” so that things run more smoothly going forward, adding electric vehicles are here to stay.
The federal government is working closely with the industry to try and resolve some of these issues, said Braun, adding the government is now allowing Connect Transit to make progress payments to manufacturers. This way, the agency can pay for the bus as each component is being built, preventing the manufacturer from shouldering the costs of each part until delivery of the final vehicle that was previously the time of payment.
Connect Transit is still waiting for repairs on most of its electric-powered vehicles. The transit agency already reduced its route schedule last year due to a driver shortage. After raising drivers’ wages and offering more competitive benefits, the problem is now a bus issue.
Connect Transit has received state and federal funding for 10 additional electric vehicles, five of which already are under contract. Braun said the Connect Transit Board of Trustees will address that at its April meeting.
Braun said he hopes to have most of the electric buses in service by the end of the year, but added the agency does not plan to restore those additional routes that were previously reduced before much of its electric vehicle fleet was sidelined. There also are no plans to make further reductions to the route schedule.
Plans remain to increase service from Connect Flex, an on-demand rideshare service that works to connect unconnected routes, and Connect Mobile that serves riders with disabilities.
