TriMet’s new battery-electric buses are officially on the road.
Twenty-four next-generation “e-buses” are entering service with TriMet this year. The first of those buses began welcoming riders aboard Line 9-Powell in July, offering a smooth, quiet and comfortable ride between Downtown Portland and the Gresham Central Transit Center. TriMet will roll out more new e-buses on more lines in the coming weeks.
The e-buses are zero-emissions vehicles, powered by 100% renewable electricity. That means they generate no air pollution, reducing overall vehicle emissions and improving air quality in our region.
They’re also American-made. TriMet We purchased these buses from GILLIG, a bus manufacturer headquartered in Livermore, California. GILLIG built the buses at its manufacturing facility in the San Francisco Bay Area and drove them about 650 miles up Interstate 5 to Portland earlier this year.
GILLIG outfits its state-of-the-art e-buses with six lithium-ion battery packs. TriMet recharges these batteries every time a bus returns to the Powell Operations Facility, so it’s ready to roll out again the next day.
With support from the federal government and Portland General Electric, TriMet has been installing charging stations for our e-buses. Most recently, they added 24 charging stations at the Powell Facility in outer Southeast Portland, so each of the new e-buses has a place to plug in.
The buses have a range of over 150 miles. TriMet will monitor performance over several months.
The new e-buses have 33% more battery capacity than the previous generation of GILLIG e-buses first introduced in 2021.