The City of Saskatoon announced earlier this year their plans to launch a pilot project to test the feasibility of electric buses in the province.
Testing would be particularly important in Saskatchewan, so that crews can see if it can survive the harsh winter season.
Now that electric bus, manufactured by BYD, has arrived in Saskatoon for its one-year test.
The city is expecting the bus to be cheaper to operate by nearly $30,000 per year, compared to the current diesel buses in their fleet, and save 50.3 tonnes of CO2 per year.
A charging station has already been installed at the city’s Civic Operations Centre, where the buses will be plugged in overnight and receive a full charge in about five hours.
If the pilot project is successful, the city hopes to eventually replace 10 of their old diesel buses per year as part of their plan to have every bus in the city be electric by 2030.
According to their 2018 Annual Report, Saskatoon Transit had 172 buses in the fleet. At their proposed rate of conversion, it would take 17 years to replace their entire fleet.
Provinces across the country are seeing the benefits of electric buses. Just last week Edmonton Transit welcomed the first 21 of 40 electric buses to their fleet. Toronto also took delivery of 10 made-in-Canada electric buses earlier this year.
h/t [Saskatoon Transit]
