Nashville Grows Fleet of Electric Buses

Proterra, a leading provider of zero-emission, battery-electric buses, announced that Nashville’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has purchased two additional 35-foot Proterra EcoRide™ electric buses.

MTA expects its first electric fleet of nine Proterra fast-charge vehicles to be on the road later this year, jumpstarting Nashville’s zero-emission mass transit system. Nashville is the latest U.S. city to deploy Proterra battery electric buses, joining Louisville, Seneca, Worcester, Tallahassee, San Antonio, West Covina, Stockton, Reno and Seattle.

According to Proterra, “Transit vehicles are now in more cities, with larger deployments, than any other zero-emission transit vehicle technology in North America.”

“The nine Proterra buses will serve the Music City’s 659,000 metropolitan population and be integrated into MTA’s Music City Circuit, which is free to ride for all passengers and offers easy access to many of Nashville’s historic landmarks,” said India Birdsong, Chief Operating Officer at MTA. MTA funded the purchase of the buses and two accompanying charging stations with a combination of federal Clean Fuels grants and local match funding. Over the 12-year life of a bus, Proterra customers have the potential to reduce fuel and maintenance costs.

The company estimates saving of around $462K vs. diesel and $404K vs. CNG, “making the vehicles 64% more cost-effective to operate than diesel or 60% more cost-effective than CNG.”

Category: Featured, Green