Posted on 01/21/2024 10:18:27 AM PST by george76
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The city of Asheville's purchase of five electric buses in 2018 has turned into a multi-million-dollar loss. The buses have been broken or unable to run because of software and/or mechanical issues, making them an expensive and disappointing purchase, according to city maintenance and transportation staff.
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Currently, three of the five buses are idled, with one that has had a broken double door since July.
“We haven’t been able to get new doors,” Asheville's interim transportation director Jessica Morriss said. “There's no third party that makes a door. We'd have to get custom-made doors.”
Each of the buses cost the city $616,796-plus. Morriss said additional costs included more than $200,000 for the infrastructure for each charger, $118,000 annually for the contract to lease batteries for the buses and $45,481 for annual electric charges.
“I think if you added that altogether, I think, probably $900,000 to $1 million is what each one cost. And, since then, we've had to invest additional money into maintaining them and fixing them," Morriss said.
Morriss said maintenance costs have been an additional $251,000, which includes replacing the traction drive controls, or electric motors, for all of the buses.
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Maintenance director John McDaniel said several of the buses also had to have their power inverters replaced at $14,000 each.
“The last couple of years have been particularly difficult,” Morriss said. “We don’t see an end in sight. Proterra, the manufacturer, has since filed for bankruptcy.”
She said it’s impossible to get parts for the idled buses.
“Since June 2023, we have had numerous issues with vehicles out of service for weeks and months," Morriss said.
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Of the two buses that are running, the other big issue is the limited distance they can go, which in winter is about 78 miles. McDaniel said that’s about three trips to the airport. Then, the bus has to come back and charge at the garage on West Haywood Street for hours, he said.
Another issue is the buses get cold overnight and it eats into a large part of the charge to heat them before they leave the garage.
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Morris said the downed electric buses have also put a strain on the city's operating fleet of 32 buses. She said those buses -- a combination of biodiesel and hybrids -- are being run more because the electric buses have been down so often.
“There's some lessons here for sure. We're pressing pause on investing in any electric technology until we can assure the products we get are going to be able to work," Morris said.
Another beautiful city in America being absolutely RUINED by stupid, ignorant liberals.
“Atlas Shrugged” —-read it.
“Atlas Shrugged” —-read it.
Well. That’s where they got it. A philosophy that allows them to be the most be immune from any consequences. Pretty slick.
But the city council members all feel good about themselves.
Mission accomplished.
Seems like a competent machine shop could come up with something.
Any biker knows that Allen Millyard could machine any part they need. The man is a mechanical genius. Look him up on youtube. Absolutely fascinating.
Have they thought of planting them in the ground with one sticking up beside the Interstate and letting people stop and paint graffiti on them like the “Cadillac Ranch” outside Amarillo TX?
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220
They will make up for it in volume.
Asheville has attracted every deviant marxist from all over the country. And none of them will EVER ride the bus. I would laugh but they will most certainly get federal tax dollars to keep the scam alive.
As for these buses, I believe the coachwork is pretty standard - the bankrupt EV company only made batteries and powertrain conversions. Should be an off-the-shelf repair parts type fix. Maybe the repair budget got nuked when they paid for those useless EVs.
Tesla is just another government subsidized scam.
EV is an illusion,a damgerous one.
Until the miracle battery which safely stores as much useful energy as the same weight of liquid hydrocarbons EV is a niche item.
I think the city council is just too damn stupid to reason out how to deal with this.
Seriously, these lib morons really can’t logically reason from A to B. Only how to spend OPM.
Did you know (you have to hunt for it) that there is a VW Beetle ranch out that way also? Next door to the semi collapsed ruins of a restaurant. I can’t recall more.
“Does Tesla and/or Mercedes manufacture EV buses for city transportation?”
Tesla doesn’t. Mercedes now makes one but I don’t know that they did in 2018 when Asheville bought the Proterra vehicles.
Proterra was an American startup that intended to specifically be a bus maker. They had a CEO who had held a senior position at Tesla.
Proterra used a composite material frame and that appears to have been the major point of failure of their design.
Yeah, it did.
“Did you read the article??”
Yes, but obviously too fast. So much writing out there.
We need AI to take a bloated article and give us the text that actually addresses its subject (its headline).
Totally understand 😁
Too bad you can’t dock the people who voted for these stupid things So taxpayers could get a refund.
Or, just replace the idiots that vote for this stuff. And send them an invoice.
Maybe they should replace them with trans.
The peddlers saw gullible target in Asheville for electric buses and....
“She said those buses — a combination of biodiesel and hybrids”
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