CU awarded $1.4M grant for electric bus project

City Utilities of Springfield is adding electric buses via federal and state funding.

CU announced this morning its transit division was selected for a $1.4 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation. CU also will utilize $368,000 in Volkswagen Clean Air Act violation settlement funding available through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. CU will fund $6,000 of the remaining costs for the $1.8 million electric project, according to a news release.

The project calls on the purchase of two electric buses, the installation of two charging stations that can power up to four buses, and training for service technicians. The electric buses, manufactured by Hayward, California-based Gillig LLC, will replace older buses in CU Transit’s fleet.

CU Transit Director Matt Crawford said four fixed-route buses would be replaced by the two electric buses, resulting in a 36,000-gallon diesel fuel reduction per year.

“We will be able to eliminate 480 quarts of oil annually due to the reduced preventative maintenance,” he said in the release. “This is a savings of 432,000 gallons of diesel and 5,760 quarts of oil over the 12-year useful life of a fixed-route bus.”

Delivery of the electric buses is expected in December 2020. The battery-powered buses will mark the first zero-emission addition to CU’s fleet.