CleanTechnica - Roy L Hales
Porterville, California, is about to make transportation history.
The little Californian city only receives an average of
13 inches of rain a year,
which makes it particularly vulnerable to atmospheric inversion, which
holds in the exhausts from vehicles, agriculture, and other sources.
Thanks to a determined city hall, the number of Stage 1 smog alerts
declined from over 100 per year, in the 1970s, to almost zero.
On
December 7, the
California Air Resources Board awarded $9.5-million
to replace its entire bus fleet.
By January, 2018, Porterville
should have North America’s first 100% electric municipal bus system.
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| The bus that will used for North America’s first 100% electric municipal bus system, GreenPower’s EV350 in Vancouver, BC Courtesy GreenPower Motor Company |
GreenPower Motor Company Inc
“There are other cities moving towards
100% battery electric, like Lancaster and Palmdale, but Porterville will
beat them,” said Brendan Riley, President of the Vancouver-based
electric vehicle company that will install the system, in an interview
with me for
The ECOreport.
“The 45-foot-long EV550 has a capacity of 99 seats including 65 on the upper floor, plus standing room. Each seat comes with a USB charging port. The bus is fully accessible with low-floor design, kneeling capabilities, wheelchair lift and configuration with two spots for wheelchairs or mobility aids.”
“The best way to really see a city, and
its transit, is to get on the top deck of a double decker. Passengers
love it. I’ve always loved it. Even as a child, when I went to London my
favorite thing was to get upstairs on a double decker. That was the
product that brought me over the GreenPower,” said Riley.
He joined the company less than two weeks after the launch in Victoria.
“I was the first American employee of
BYD motors, basically their start up guy. I started up the entire
program. Even deciding what products to bring to market; hiring people
and building the team; expanding into Canada and Mexico,” said Riley.
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Map of Areas mentioned in the text. Roy L Hales
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He is also a Southern California
resident, which might explain how GreenPower received Letters of Intent
for 25 GreenPower all-electric school buses from 9 different school
districts in the State of California.
“GreenPower has the first purpose built
and designed school buses," said Riley.
"This is not the standard body-on-chasis, like
taking a truck chassis and throwing a body on it, that’s used
ubiquitously in the United States and Canada. … GreenPower’s school bus
are not limited to putting batteries between frame rails – because there
aren’t any frame rails.
"I have a full chassis on the bottom that is
strong enough that if I get into a side impact, my batteries are within
the frame. It has a lot of flexibility: allowing us to put the weight
where we want it, to go with bigger or smaller batteries and put the
motor where we want.
"This is a full monocoque designed school bus, a
truly game changing product.”
He added that, at the time of this writing, GreenPower has built a total of five buses.
“They are the finest battery electric
products, bar none, that I have experienced and I am familiar with all
the products being sold in North America.”
In 2017, the company will deliver an eBus to Twin Transit system, in Lewis County, Washington state.
North America’s First 100% Electric Municipal Bus System
In September, GreenPower purchased
a 9.3 acre property in Porterville for an assembly plant. It plans to power it with renewable energy, “quite possibly even off the grid.”
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| Brendan Riley, President of GreenPower Motor Company (l) with Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations (r). Courtesy GreenPower Motor Company |
“We’re working out those calculations right now, to see what we can do,” said Riley.
“We are thrilled by the commitment by
GreenPower Motor Company to establish its manufacturing facility in
Porterville and the hundreds of local jobs it will generate, in addition
to the economic and technological benefit to the greater San Joaquin
Valley,”
said Mayor Milt Stowe.
“The real secret to the GreenPower EV350 is its clean-sheet, built-from-the-ground-up design that eschews conventional bus chassis in favor of a purpose-built EV setup. Like the Tesla Model S, the batteries have been placed low in the floor to give it a low center of gravity. The EV350 has also used lightweight materials like carbon fiber and aluminum to keep it as light as possible for such a large electric vehicle, though it still comes in at just over 31,000 pounds, making the 5,000 pound Model S seem svelte in comparison.”
“The EV350 an be shortened or lengthened very easily, you just take sections out or add them. It can be as small as 30 feet in length and as long as 45 feet. That’s not new in the bus world, but this is a clean sheet EV design. Everything was designed for electric propulsion and battery placement,” said Riley.
Porterville Transit serves about 100,000 people, 60,000 of whom are in the city of Porterville.
It will also install a charging infrastructure that includes 11 charging stations.
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