AVTA Chairman of the Board Marvin Crist highlighted some of the benefits to the community that are a result of the electrification of AVTA’s fleet.
“In those three million electric miles, approximately 769,231 gallons of diesel fuel have been saved,” Crist said. “This equates to a net savings of $1,018,207 in fuel costs after paying for electricity. Even more impressive, those three million all-electric miles represent a carbon footprint
reduction of more than 18.2 million pounds of CO2 and 43,594 pounds of particulate matter.”
Since February 2016 when the AVTA Board of Directors voted to award a contract to BYD to manufacture electric buses over a five year period at BYD’s facility in Lancaster, AVTA has been on the path to pioneering battery-electric bus transportation.
The project, which is nearing completion, has created a smarter, greener, and more interconnected transit system serving the Antelope Valley
and areas extending south into the Los Angeles basin and north to Edwards Air Force Base and the Mojave Air and Space Port. By combining electric bus technology with wireless inductive charging technology, AVTA’s bus project is the first of its kind in the nation.
“AVTA operates 93 vehicles in our fleet, 61 of which are zero-emission,” stated AVTA Executive Director and CEO Macy Neshati. “The majority of our electric fleet consists of BYD electric buses, manufactured right here in the Antelope Valley. Our goal from the start was to be the first transit
agency to implement electric bus technology on a broad scale, and we have met that goal.”
[Information via news release from the Antelope Valley Transit Authority.]
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