Posted on 11/20/2024 7:25:20 AM PST by Twotone
Austin, Texas, planned to transition all its city buses to electric, but the ambitious climate-friendly goal has come to a screeching halt.
Remaining Time -0:48 By Kevin Killough
Published: November 19, 2024 1:07pm
Article Dig Deeper
Austin, Texas, planned to transition all its city buses to electric, but the ambitious climate-friendly goal has come to a screeching halt. Recommended for you
The Austin Monitor reports that 46 new electric buses – costing around $1 million each – will be in storage for at least a year due to lack of charging infrastructure to keep them running all day. The buses were manufactured by now-bankrupt Proterra, which has left city transit districts across the country with fleets of inoperable buses.
Proterra was acquired by Phoenix Motor Inc., which the Monitor reports is struggling to service warranties and repair technical issues.
The city’s transit board appropriated $255 million to buy 197 electric buses, some of which were manufactured by Minnesota-based New Flyer of America. In July, KUT News reported that Austin’s transit officials were beginning to realize that their ambitious e-bus plan was crumbling.
While diesel-powered buses could run for nearly 24 hours without refueling, an electric bus needed to recharge every 8 to 10 hours, which was creating logistical issues. Drivers doing long routes often had to stop in the middle of the route to go charge, according to KUT, and the city’s hot climates and hills were making it worse.
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
Waa waa . . .
The five Ps.
Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
> the city’s hot climates and hills were making it worse <
Well, there you go. Austin’s transit board is not to blame here. It’s the fault of Climate Change plus Geology.
🤔
they could pull a diesel generator
> they could pull a diesel generator <
I’ve wonder if this would be a good business opportunity. Have a truck towing a diesel generator. Respond to stranded or low-charged electric vehicles.
Would there be enough of a demand?
Sounds like a fiasco. But look a little deeper and you’ll see that government cronies got rich on taxpayer money. So it was a success.
“... they could pull a diesel generator ...”
And therein lies the irony. If one simply *must* virtue signal your ‘green’ bona fides by driving a vehicle with a battery, drive one that uses the very successful example set forth by Toyota. Their hybrids use electrics to drive the wheels. However, included in the vehicle is a small hydrocarbon powered engine that spins a generator for the battery. The engine can also drive the wheels if needed.
So a poor purchasing decision by Austin’s liberal leadership, one of so very many over the years.
I imagine the transit authority’s best response is to Blame Trump. That always works in liberal circles and their sychophant media.
Headline doesn’t match the article. Not even close! LOL.
most likely, the real reasons most of the busses are out of service are breakdowns and lack of spare parts from bankrupted manufacturers ... and most likely most of these are actually parked permanently, and the city is hoping that in a year everyone will just forget they pissed away hundreds of millions of dollars on a virtue-signalling pipe dream ...
Oh noes. I must have inadvertantly missed that title being wrong. It was from another I posted.
Time to FIRE multiple people
I bet this is more widespread than is being reported. The Montgomery County (MD) Public School District did exactly the same thing, and also ended up buying a bunch of diesel buses to make up for the poor performance of the electric ones.
There are probably hundreds of such cases in blue areas.
btt
It was a pretty funny juxtaposition though!
Wow...the government employees really were cautious in spending taxpayer dollars. NOT! Fire everyone who pushed this inadequate plan. What pathetic , incompetent fools.
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