ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) is adding to its fleet of electric buses thanks to the help of a federal grant.

What You Need To Know

  • Federal grant money will purchase 12 electric and 4 hybrid buses along with chargers

  • Grant also paying for maintenence team to recieve additional training on how to best care for new electric buses 

  • Electric buses get 230-270 miles each charge 

  • Each bus takes about 18 months to build 

The agency calls it the largest federal grant of its kind to be awarded to Pinellas County, totaling $27.8 million.

With the grant money, PSTA will purchase 12 new electric buses and four hybrid-electric buses as well as 12 new charging stations. The funding will also help with training the maintenance team on the latest technology.

Henry Lukasik, who works at the Director of Maintenance for PSTA, says the new buses will be replacing some of the fleet’s diesel buses that were first put on the road in 2006. The diesel buses get about 4 miles per gallon and will have over 1 million miles on them when they are finally retired.

The agency opted to get a mix of hybrid-electric and electric buses with the grant money. They first started getting hybrid buses in 2009 and they are the sole vehicle used for the Sunrunner routes.

“We probably look at about a 35% reduction in the maintenance of a hybrid-electric fleet versus standard diesel,” Lukasik said.

The hybrid vehicles get about 5.5 miles to the gallon which Lukasik says may not sound like much, but makes a huge difference.

“In our industry, getting a mile and half more per gallon saves lots of money in fuel expenses,” he said.

The agency already has a few electric buses and 56 more on order. This grant will provide an additional 12 electric buses and the four hybrids. Lukasik says these buses get between 230 and 270 miles on one charge and charge up in just about 4 hours.

They also have thermosheilded windows which is a layer between the panes of glass that block out over 99% of UV light.

“Thermosheilded windows increase range because it’s not used for air conditioning systems,” Lukasik said.

The buses take about 18 months to build and will be rolling into PSTA a few at a time each month until the order is complete.