Columbia will be the first Missouri city to use electric buses, when the first vehicles arrive September 21.
COMO Connect will receive four battery electric buses from BYD Coach & Bus Company. BYD’s media representative Matt Jurjevich says Columbia is at the forefront of a movement toward electric buses.
“Columbia will go down as one of the leading cities in this movement as we expect to see almost all of the United States transportation hopefully electrified by the end of this decade,” Jurjevich said.
COMO Connect’s multi-modal manager, Drew Brooks said although there are great benefits to electric buses he does not see all buses becoming electric.
Brooks says there are many benefits to electric buses such as a significant decrease in noise, no exhaust admission and a significant decrease in maintenance and repairs.
However, Brooks said the cost to obtain one 40-foot bus is $250,000 to $300,000, which is more expensive than a diesel bus. Brooks says he’s hopeful that rides will not see a change in price.
“As we add more of these vehicles to fleet and if we see significant savings that we would hopefully be able to kind of roll that savings back to the public in some way shape or form. Whether it’s improving service or reducing fares or something of that nature but, of course that’s going to take some time to evaluate what saving we actually realize from running these buses,” Brooks said.
Brooks said the buses are beneficial to the environment but at the same thing they are battery operated and the power has to come from somewhere whether it be coal or gas powered. Brooks says they are looking into using solar panels to help charge the buses.