The City of Saskatoon is hoping to roll out the new electric bus, a pilot project for the city, in a couple weeks. The Director of Saskatoon Transit, Jim McDonald, says there will some history tied into Saskatoon’s pilot project electric bus.

“1948 we went to trolley buses so that’s the reason, so we went to an electric bus with rubber wheels not running on a rail. So,1948 is the number we are going to use to register this vehicle to walk back to its roots.”

McDonald says the charging system is being installed then they will train their mechanics, utility people and operators on how to deal with the electric bus. The city has as much as $533,600 dollars available to put towards the electric bus pilot project, however, McDonald says it looks like they may need half of that because the cost of leasing the bus actually came in less than first thought at approximately $114,000 a year.

McDonald says when riding the city’s new electric bus you won’t hear the big diesel engine but you will still hear the doors opening and closing, the air conditioner running, the road noise on the wheels and the transmission sound. As well, they plan to try this bus out on every route in the city to see how it performs and while it came with an electronic heater, ultimately the test is how it will perform in the winter. For instance will it wear down the battery or use up the available power.

“Using up the available power just means we charge it more often and that’s not necessarily a big issue because if we find that’s gonna happen, that’s exactly one of the reasons why we wanted to lease one.”

McDonald says this leased bus will point them in the right direction to answer questions like which power pack should they invest in or should they invest in on-road chargers for along the way.