AC Transit's Fleet of ZEBs as of July 2021

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

AC Transit has been operating 40-foot fuel cell electric buses in normal, revenue service since 2006 starting with a fleet of three Van Hool A330FC. These buses were in service for about four years before being replaced by second generation fuel cell buses, the Van Hool A300FCs. These thirteen fuel cell buses operated out of AC Transit's D2 Emeryville Division and D4 East Oakland Division on routes such as the 14, 21, 51A, 51B, and 54. Many of these A300FC buses have exceeded their life expectancy and at least two of these buses have recently been retired.

New Batch of Fuel Cell Electric Buses and Battery Electric Buses

As part of AC Transit's zero emission bus rollout plan, ten more new fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) from New Flyer were placed into service starting in January 2020 and five new battery electric buses (BEBs) also from New Flyer started carrying passengers in May 2020. The five BEBs will be operated out of the East Oakland Division where six stationary chargers from Chargepoint were installed in 2020 with the cost totaling $896,937.

As the new fleet of New Flyer ZEBs are placed into service, AC Transit continues to iron out issues that come up.

Additional Zero Emission Bus Additions To AC Transit's Fleet

In 2021, AC Transit will place two additional BEBs into service. These two buses are from Gillig and are considered pilot buses for the initial order of 23 Gillig BEBs (including the two pilots). As of the writing of this post, both pilot vehicles (numbered 8006 and 8007) have been delivered. AC Transit replied in the comments of a social media post that the first of the Gillig BEBs will enter service in late August 2021.

Twenty more FCEBs from New Flyer has also been ordered, joining the ten earlier New Flyer FCEBs in 2020.

AC Transit is also operating one 60-foot long FCEB from New Flyer, the XHE60. This particular bus (2501) was built back in November 2015 and has only recently entered revenue service, specifically on May 27, 2021. As of now, the Champaign Urbana Mass Transit District has bought the XHE60.

Finally, AC Transit demoed a battery electric double decker bus from Alexander Dennis (the Enviro500EV) but has not placed any orders for that particular bus model yet.