MINNEAPOLIS — The Metropolitan Council and Metro Transit are making a sizable investment in clean energy.
The council recently approved $34 million to buy new electric buses.
The investment is supported by $21.6 million in grants from the Federal Transit Administration.
Metro Transit Chief Operating Officer Brian Funk says the money will pay for five 60-foot buses that should be available in 2025, along with 20 40-foot buses that will be available in 2026.
“The 60-foot buses are almost $2 million per bus and the 40-foot buses are about $1.3 million per bus,” Funk said.
The diesel-powered versions of these buses cost significantly less money. Funk says a diesel-powered 60-foot bus costs around $1 million and a 40-foot bus costs around $850,000.
Metro Transit received its first batch of electric vehicles about five years ago.
“We started with eight buses in the beginning,” Funk said.
“This is new technology in our industry. So, we’ve been able to learn a lot.”
Over the last five years, Funk says those eight buses have saved Metro Transit around 40,000 gallons of diesel fuel, but so far, Funk says the savings on fuel haven’t offset the extra cost of the buses themselves.
"We have not seen it pencil out where there is a direct cost savings on the fuel side.”
Funk says the savings should come with time. He says most buses last at least 12 years, so this first batch of electric buses should have at least seven years of life left.
Over the next five years, Funk says Metro Transit is hoping to reach about 100 electric buses. That number is still relatively small compared the overall fleet, which Funk says includes about 800 buses in the Twin Cities metro.
"The technology is not quite there yet. We want to push ourselves and push the industry to come up with something that is going to be really viable."
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