More public buses are ditching diesel engines for battery packs and hydrogen fuel-cell power. But in recent years, this newer, greener tech has encountered industrywide manufacturing challenges and funding constraints — sidelining existing fleets and threatening a mandate that California’s transit agencies transition to 100% zero-emission buses by 2040.
Transportation leaders across the state and Bay Area are hedging their bets and planning different routes to reach that benchmark. While some are opting for hydrogen fuel cells — an emerging yet somewhat unreliable option that is primarily converted from natural gas and produces greenhouse gases — most agencies are investing more heavily in battery-powered buses.
But components of that pioneering equipment are already becoming obsolete — an issue that is currently throttling the nation’s first all-electric, inductively charged bus routes, less than eight years after the $5.2 million project got rolling in the East Bay.
Starting in 2016, County Connection — the transit authority linking Clayton, Concord, Martinez, Orinda and Walnut Creek — fired up eight new all-electric buses and charging infrastructure anchored at the Walnut Creek BART station.
This initial fleet was custom-built by Gillig, one of the largest transit bus manufacturers in North America, for two free, high-ridership corridors: Route 4, a free service that loops between BART and Broadway Plaza through the city’s downtown, and Route 5, which runs along California Boulevard, South Main Street and Creekside Drive.
“All things considered, we’ve had better luck with our early electric buses than other transit agencies,” said Scott Mitchell, County Connection’s COO. “A lot of (other buses) are off the road, parked in maintenance yards and unable to run at all.”
However, the modems on County Connection’s eco-friendly buses stopped communicating with its induction charging system roughly six months ago.
Mitchell said that Wave — the manufacturer of the innovative wireless charging station — was acquired in 2021 by Ideanomics, a large conglomeration of zero-emission companies. Ideanomics filed for bankruptcy in December, months after securities regulators accused its executives of misleading investors about its financial performance, which led to staff shortages and delayed maintenance requests.
Four of County Connection’s eight all-electric buses — out of its total 125-bus fleet — returned to the road after the charger connectivity issues were resolved late last year, but Mitchell said supply chain issues continue to bog down the transportation department’s attempts to repair and replace its equipment.
When the agency began swapping out aging power boards, he said it also learned that the manufacturer of the buses’ battery packs had stopped producing and servicing that “legacy” system altogether. In the same way that EV drivers are limited to specific types of chargers for their personal vehicles, public transit agencies cannot simply mix-and-match equipment to work around mechanical mishaps.
Bankruptcies, inflation and supply chain issues have taken electric buses offline in cities across the country, bungling operations in cities such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Austin, Texas.
With more than four decades of experience in the transportation industry, Mitchell is concerned that equipment manufacturers, maintenance crews and power suppliers won’t be able to keep up with demand, especially as state transit agencies race to meet the California Air Resources Board’s zero-emission mandate within the next 15 years.
“We’re trying to gather as much information as we can before we make a large purchase of zero-emission vehicles, because we want to make sure we go in the right direction and it’s the most effective thing to do,” Mitchell said, explaining how County Connection has reassigned buses powered by renewable diesel to maintain service levels on Routes 4 and 5.
As the agency researches ways to retrofit its buses with more modern charging technology from reliable manufacturers that follow the industry’s evolving standards, he said “some of the mandates may be coming quicker than we can meet them. But we’re doing the best we can.”
Walnut Creek Councilmember Kevin Wilk, who chairs the transit agency’s board, said it’s not unusual for electric buses and other innovative environmental projects to need a few kinks ironed out after implementation, but he never anticipated that obsolete equipment would be one of the most challenging hurdles to their efforts.
“It’s very expensive, so we’re doing things to bridge the gap along the way,” Wilk said in a recent interview. While County Connection might pay $600,000 for a 40-foot diesel bus, acquiring an electric bus of the same length runs closer to $1 million. “If we are having issues with being able to refurbish or maintain batteries beyond even eight years, how can we expect to go along with the mandate (to operate federally funded assets for at least) 12 years? It will be interesting to see what happens with the Trump administration.”
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 that directed federal agencies to pause funding that was awarded by former President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the 2021 bill that authorized $1.2 trillion for transportation and infrastructure spending, including $550 billion for new programs and investments.
It’s still unclear how Trump’s order on “Unleashing American Energy” will impact the industry amid legal challenges, since spending approved by Congress has historically been protected from executive interference.
In the meantime, Wilk said he plans to lead a group of local elected officials to the American Public Transit Authority Legislative Committee in Washington, DC in May, where they hope to flag these issues for the East Bay’s state and federal lawmakers.
“I don’t think (our elected officials are) aware of these battery manufacture issues that are happening right now,” Wilk said, arguing that car travel would not be nearly as smooth if drivers had to fill up their tanks at manufacturer-specific gas stations. “When cars and buses were introduced for the first time a hundred years ago, I’m sure there were problems until things started becoming universal.
“Eventually, the (electric bus) industry will get there, too, but it’s not happening in six months.”
