LAS CRUCES – The city has approved the purchase of its first batch of battery electric buses.
The city councils of Las Cruces voted 6-0 on Monday for a contract with BYD Coach & Bus, a unit of the Chinese parent company BYD Co. Ltd., to buy five electric buses for the urban RoadRUNNER transit fleet with an option to buy up to seven others at a later point in time during the five-year contract period, which ends on December 30, 2026.
District 5 Councilor Gill Sorg was absent.
The total contract amount is $ 4.1 million and includes the first five buses and depot chargers. The amount will be funded through Federal Transit Administration grants, local games, and other local funding, said Transit Administrator Mike Bartholomew.
The city will buy the BYD K8M model.
“The innovative K8M, a state-of-the-art local transport bus, is 35 feet long and offers space for up to 33 passengers,” says a press release from BYD. “The highly reliable and safe K8M electric bus is equipped with an LFP battery of up to 435kWh and can be fully charged within 3 hours.”
The contract also stipulates that BYD will provide city bus drivers, mechanics and first aiders with 40 hours of training. BYD will design and manufacture buses to city standards and install depot chargers, said Jose Cardona with the city’s financial services division.
BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, describes itself as “the world’s leading manufacturer of battery electric buses with over 50,000 vehicles worldwide and more than 1,000 vehicles on the road or in production in the US”. His clients include transit departments and companies in Los Angeles, Denver, Anaheim, and Kansas City.
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The buses are expected to go into service next November. At the time, Bartholomew told the city council that they will be replacing five older diesel-powered buses in the city’s 20-bus fleet with fixed lines. As more electric buses are purchased, they will continue to replace existing, older diesel buses, he said.
Bartholomew also said BYD’s contract with the city will not be affected by an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which will prohibit transportation companies from spending federal dollars on buying electric buses from Chinese or China-controlled companies in 2022.
Frank Girardot, senior director of communications at BYD North America, said BYD was included despite the fact that the company denied the premise of the NDAA change because the company is privately owned. Girardot said neither BYD North America nor its parent company received government subsidies from China.
Bartholomew said that since the contract goes into effect before 2022, the purchase of the five buses and the potential purchase of seven more buses, as well as any other contract terms, will not be affected by the NDAA.
Michael McDevitt is the city and county government reporter for Sun News. He can be reached at 575-202-3205, [email protected] or @MikeMcDTweets on Twitter.
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