The City of Sarnia has received the green light from council to order its first electric city bus.
Council awarded the supply and delivery of the $400,000 bus, and nearly $148,000 portable charger, to Damera Corporation (a division of Mississauga Bus Group) in collaboration with Karsan.
The Rural Transit Solutions Fund is covering 80 per cent of the cost of the bus and charger, and the remaining 20 per cent will come from provincial gas tax funding.
City/County Councillor Bill Dennis voted against the approval.
"We are the home of the oil and gas industry and most of our citizens' way of life is due in some manner to this industry. We should be supporting our oil and gas sector and not also opting to do an experiment which has already failed for other Ontario municipalities," Dennis said.
The electric bus is almost twice the capital cost of a diesel alternative.
General Manager of Engineering and Operations David Jackson said starting with a limited deployment will allow the city to fully identify how operating efficiencies weigh against increased capital costs.
"We certainly agree. There isn't a financial business case to convert to electric without the federal funding, but the federal funding is incentivizing conversion to electric," Jackson. "There have been previous indications that future funding may require it, so that is why we do think it is important at least for us to start exploring it so we can understand it better and be prepared for those future grants."
Councillor Terry Burrell supported the direction.
"The fact that we're doing it on a test basis, and perhaps with a test run that we're using it on, I think it's good that we're doing it this way. That's how you learn, also what we learn we can pass on to others," said Burrell.
The electric e-JEST is a 100 per cent electric, low-floor mini-bus designed for urban environments.
It's compact size is specifically designed for community routes, specialized paratransit, lower ridership routes, and on-demand service.
The base bus is manufactured by Karsan in Turkey, with final assembly completed in Ontario.