Anonymous
Source: MTD Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara MTD recently installed 14 new ChargePoint Level 2 electric vehicle chargers in their Terminal 1 yard to provide infrastructure for a new fleet of all-electric light duty vehicles consisting of 14 2020 Chevy Bolts. These vehicles are used in non-revenue service, mainly as “relief vehicles”, which bus operators use to move between shifts and buses throughout MTD’s service territory.
The new fleet of Chevy Bolts replaces an existing fleet of aging gasoline-powered sedans, and will immediately reduce MTD’s emissions on the light-duty side of District operations.
In order to make the MTD facility ready to charge and maintain these new vehicles, Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Charge Ready Program covered the costs of electrical upgrades and other infrastructure work necessary to install 14 Level 2 EV chargers. SCE also provides a partial rebate for each charger.
Additionally, the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) provided significant grant funds toward the charger costs from their Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Program. “We’re very happy to be in this partnership to expand the use of electric vehicles through our region to serve the needs of MTD,” said APCD’s Executive Director Aeron Arlin Genet.
“I’m really excited to announce our first Chevy Bolts that we’ve introduced to our fleet of relief vehicles and we’re thrilled with the partnership with the Air Pollution Control District to get this project done,” said MTD General Manager Jerry Estrada.
While pandemic conditions make a public ribbon cutting event impossible, MTD produced a video showing the vehicles and chargers and describing the project. That video can be viewed at this link to Santa Barbara MTD’s YouTube channel.
