Brampton Launches World’s Largest Fleet of Interoperable Battery Electric Buses

May 6, 2021

The Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) congratulates Brampton Transit on the deployment of the world’s largest fleet of interoperable and standardized battery electric buses (BEBs).

The eight BEBs from Nova Bus and New Flyer charge completely in less than 10 minutes using four 450-kilowatt overhead pantograph stations provided by ABB Inc. and Siemens Canada Ltd. The system is part of CUTRIC’s Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial, the first initiative in the world to design, develop and integrate BEBs and high-powered chargers made by different manufacturers.

“Brampton’s world-leading deployment, which is being supported by five of CUTRIC’s Member companies, makes Canada a global hotbed of electric bus innovation,” said CUTRIC President and CEO Josipa Petrunic. “This project is also creating new low-carbon technology jobs and attracting foreign investment to Brampton, to Ontario, and to Canada, all of which is more vital than ever as we work to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Having recently approved the updated Brampton Grow Green Environmental Master Plan, which mandates an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, members of City Council lauded the BEB initiative for saving nearly 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. “I am excited to announce the launch of electric buses on Brampton’s roads starting May 3. Brampton is a Green City, and this is a significant milestone in sustainability for our community,”  said Mayor Patrick Brown.  “We are proud to collaborate with CUTRIC, our project partners and leaders in innovation for the Pan-Canadian Battery Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial in Brampton. This project is a global first, and will further enhance our transit network, which is one of the fastest-growing in Canada.”

Having achieved its initial goal of deploying 18 BEBs and seven chargers in Vancouver, York Region and Brampton, the trial is expanding to include hundreds of BEBs across seven cities as part of a national joint procurement initiative using an innovative funding and financing solution from the Infrastructure Bank of Canada.

All three transit agencies in the trial to date have agreed to collect real-time BEB and charger data, and to share those data sets with each other to support evidence-based electrification procurements in the immediate future. CUTRIC is currently collecting data from all operational vehicles and chargers in order to support empirical analysis and interoperability testing, and to build a Canadian E-Bus Big Data Trust for municipalities across the country.

“The growth and progress of the Pan-Canadian Electric Bus Demonstration and Integration Trial is shifting the entire zero-emission transit industry towards interoperability and standardization, which in turn will help to ensure that transit agencies and all levels of government benefit from a competitive marketplace,” Petrunic said. “This is good news for taxpayers, and great news for transit riders.”