CARTA has begun using three full-size, all-electric buses on its regular routes, and it may double or triple the number of vehicles in the future.
Chattanooga's public transit system put the 30-seat buses into service on its route system in March and it's looking at purchasing six to nine more, CARTA Executive Director Lisa Maragnano said Wednesday.
She said the purchase is "depending on pricing" of the vehicles, which cost about $700,000 apiece.
"The pricing has come down," Maragnano told a group tour of CARTA's facilities that was set up by the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition.
CARTA for decades used electric buses on its shuttle route downtown, with the former Advanced Vehicle Systems building them in Chattanooga for years before eventually winding down its operation.
Philip Pugliese, transportation system planner for CARTA, said a grant has helped the transit system gain real-time data on the new buses as they go their daily routine.
"We're still in a major learning phase," he said. "So far, they've operated as expected. No issues."
In addition to lower tailpipe emissions on the electric buses, there will be long-term savings on operational maintenance, Pugliese said. He estimated a 25 cent per mile savings over the life of the vehicles compared to a typical diesel bus, which cost about $500,000 to $550,000 each.
Pugliese said there's only about 300 all-electric business across the United States operating at transit systems. Worldwide, he said, there are about 400,000, though the majority of those are in China.
Jonathan Overly, director for the East Tennessee coalition, said the U.S. is getting left behind. While many cities aren't taking action, CARTA is doing so, he said.
"Fleets need to do their own evaluations and see what works," Overly said. "There's nothing like first-person experience."
Overly's group also was visiting parcel shipper UPS' operations at Founders Way in Chattanooga, which features compressed natural gas operations.
Ronnie Hendrix, CARTA's general manager of maintenance, said the new electric buses go out at about 4:30 a.m., make a six-hour run, and then are brought back to CARTA's operation to check their battery charges.
After about a two-hour charge at a plug-in system, they're put back into service until about 1 a.m., he said.
"They'll run any route," Hendrix said, though CARTA is keeping them off a few runs with tight curves.
Of the state's four major cities, only Chattanooga and Nashville are offering the large EVs, he said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.