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All five of Green Mountain Transit’s electric buses are currently out of service due to a battery recall that has left the agency operating on a razor-thin margin, according to a WCAX report.
The buses, manufactured by New Flyer and delivered less than a year ago, were pulled from service in November after the battery manufacturer warned they posed a potential fire hazard. As a result, the electric buses cannot be stored inside GMT’s garage and must remain outdoors, per the January 29 news report by Laura Ullman.
Cold weather has compounded the problem. The buses require temperatures of at least 41 degrees to safely charge, conditions that have been scarce this winter. The vehicles have remained parked outside, dusted with snow, unable to operate.
“It’s been literally down to our last bus, where if we have another bus that breaks or some other accident that happens, you know, we would have to start canceling service,” said Green Mountain Transit General Manager Clayton Clark. “There have been a couple of runs that we’ve had to cut because we didn’t have a bus available, but so far it’s just been limited to a few runs.”
With the electric fleet sidelined, GMT has been relying heavily on its remaining diesel buses, stretching an already tight budget and leaving little room for mechanical failures or disruptions.
Purchase announced in June, 2024
The announcement of the purchase of the five buses was made in a June, 2024 press release.
“Adding five more electric buses to the GMT fleet marks another significant step in Burlington’s efforts to fight climate change and make progress toward our community’s Net Zero Energy goals,” stated Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak in a GMT press release. “These buses will help us decrease our reliance on fossil fuels, cut carbon emissions, and improve air quality in our City. I look forward to working with our partners to continue the electrification of the GMT fleet that serves Burlington and neighboring communities.”
Miles on a Single Charge
The E-buses have 520 kWh of available battery capacity and generally will be charged overnight during off-peak hours with 100 percent renewably sourced electricity at GMT’s Burlington garage on Queen City Park Road, according to the press release While New Flyer indicates that the E-buses have an operating range of up to 258 miles on a single charge, actual range will depend on a number of variables, including topography, passenger loads, number of stops, and weather.
Funding Collaboration
Funding for the five E-buses, which together cost $8,118,526, including the charging equipment and planned GMT facility work, was a collaboration provided by the following partners:
- $275,000 – Burlington Electric Department
- $6,729,067 – Federal Government Low/No Emissions Grant
- $1,114,459 – GMT, along with Federal and State Transportation Funding
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Categories: Transportation
I know there’s a fable somewhere that fits this:
Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke?
Anyone remember one?
:)))
I had a cousin that always put his money into any machine at the store to get a prize. He ran to one, sent his quarter down the slot, and out came the prize. He didn’t realize that the machine gave out plastic to use for laminating your license. So there he was, looking dumbfounded, holding two small pieces of plastic not knowing what to do with his prize. When I saw the story about abandoning the EV busses, I saw the state reps standing there with two pieces of plastic.
Very interesting, remember the previous Presidential Administration push for 100% electric buses including school buses, with Kamala singing ‘The wheels on the bus go round and round’
On the bright side, the fuel they use is considered renewable when sourced in Burlington, where there is a concerted effort to shut down the wood burning power plant.
Very hard to comment and stay on this website.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Amazing. Five busses that can’t be used. Truly a net zero investment.
No strain on the electrical grid. No fossil fuels needed to heat a garage for these busses. Too bad it cost $8,000,000 to find this out.
Great article about EV busses on Ace Of Spades HQ this morning.
How clever of them to use something dysfunctional and unchargeable during the coldest times, when electricity is purchased on the spot market! Well done!
Wasn’t there a provision in the GWSA that when an electric (school) bus was purchased, they had to destroy a diesel bus, regardless of whether it ran or not, for you know, net-zero reasons (I typo’d “treasons”… freudian.)?
Junk policies begets …………………junk!
Send the leftist political junkies to the junkyard of failed expensive policies.
I think we should donate these busses to VPIRG Aand see if they can make them work. Oh, and thanks for lobbying to waste our tax dollars on useless junk. These don’t work in this state, it’s not California. You can’t change Vermont into another state, just like you can’t change genders, whoops.
…but you CAN change genders, electric busses will work if we just keep using them, and socialism will work if we just keep trying it. Kumbaya.
Simply unreal. First that the Federal Government would put up most of the money. When local government has a small stake in the venture, why exercise due diligence? Second, is it really the case that these buses cannot be charged in temps lower than 41 degrees? How many above 41 nights do we have in the winter? Finally, over a million dollars per bus? Are you kidding? This is bad government gone haywire!
As long as I am not paying for for the mistake of buying and using electric vehicles where the terrain is hilly, the weather often too cold, and the electric cost is high, I don’t care.
GOOD! And the IQ numbers of officials who bought them is ?? stable but low.
Will this also be a problem with Beta Industries electric airplanes? Glad I’m not invested in the EV world.
Repurposed as….high end homeless/camper-shelters! Only in VT.
At this point, they would make great septic tanks.
$1.6mm/Bus are the nuts? $1mm over a good natural gas bus, $800k over a hybrid bus. Anyone involved in this purchase that didn’t try to stop this idiocy has to be fired for incompetence and malfeasance of office. The is a glaring example of global warming derangement syndrome.
Totally represents the wisdom and insight (NOT) that this Blue state of Vermont endorses.
Once upon a time, Vermont was very conservative. I was just a kid then, but once the early 1960’s were upon us the change (little things at first) were part of Vermont government. So was the increase in taxes, new programs Vermonters couldn’t afford. But Vermont kept voting those who couldn’t even run their own household into office to run our state.
NOW – 60+ years later we are buying $$$ 8 million dollars worth of new public transportation that sits in a garage because they are dangerous❗ That proves you can’t teach Common Sense.
I dated a liberal leaning woman briefly on Tinder. She drives a Nissan Leaf and was recently left stranded in a remote location in the White Mountains with her young son because her car battery died in the sub-zero temperatures. Despite this being a known issue, she was absolutely convinced that Trumps “fascism” was the reason she could not reach a charging station.