Laval’s first all-electric bus to be tested in new year

A plan by Laval’s main transit authority, the Société de Transport de Laval, to acquire its first all-electric bus in anticipation of electrifying the entire fleet, is being defended by Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, while some critics are questioning the deal.

Vaillancourt says the purchase is warranted, since the city will eventually have to replace its entire line of fossil-fueled buses, before government regulators start targeting the vehicles as being among the worst producers of exhaust emissions.

All-electric operation
During a press conference held at Laval city hall on Aug. 30, Vaillancourt announced an agreement by the city with U.S. public transit producer DesignLine for the purchase of one all-electric EcoSmart bus. With delivery expected before the end of this year, the STL would become the first public transit agency in Quebec to buy a standard-sized bus fully powered by electricity.
The vehicle, which will cost Laval nearly $900,000, seats up to 38 people and is powered by batteries that charge overnight. It is said to have an operating range of up to 250 kilometres, is air-conditioned with a rooftop Thermo King refrigeration unit, and is virtually silent compared to a conventional bus. Laval officials signed the contract in August, having accepted DesignLine’s bid following an international call for tenders.
Laval is purchasing the bus for an extended trial that will allow its crews, including mechanics and drivers, to familiarize themselves with its features, while they also assess its reliability. According to DesignLine, the EcoSmart has been successfully operated in regions of the world where the climate can be searingly hot, like Australia and United Arab Emirates. Since DesignLine doesn’t mention sub-zero cold testing in its furnished documentation, presumably the test run in Laval will be providing valuable answers to that question.
The Eco-Smart runs on an improved version of sodium nickel chloride batteries, which according to battery technology experts had safety and management problems when originally developed, because of the high temperatures at which they operated. The bus’s more recent Zebra battery system is considered state-of-the-art, and is said to satisfactorily resolve the temperature issue.
The STL is acquiring the bus in conjunction with an agreement it has with other public transit agencies in Quebec which are also interested in electrifying their fleets. While the STL is spearheading the project, a total of nine carriers will be conducting tests on electrically-powered technologies, in conjunction with Hydro Québec.
The STL is not alone in pursuing the objective of converting its buses from fossil fuel to electricity. In the City of Montreal, the STM plans to have all its fleet converted to 100 per cent electric by 2025. The STL’s projected deadline is 2030.
Despite a longstanding view by the Parti au Service du Citoyen’s Robert Bordeleau that tranway technology is preferable for Laval, during last Tuesday evening’s city council meeting Vaillancourt defended the electric bus deal. During question period, Bordeleau also wondered what the EcoSmart could eventually end up really costing.
The mayor noted that the popularity of tramways as a viable alternative in public transit has actually declined in recent years, proportionate to the rise of battery technology, which has been improving while making electric buses running on bigger, stronger batteries viable. Despite the mayor’s assurances, another group, the Mouvement lavallois, also wonders about the bus deal.
“If we replace each of the 233 buses currently operated by the STL by just one bus built by DesignLine at the current cost, we will have to spend $207 million between now and 2030,” David de Cotis, the ML’s president, said in a press release. “This will certainly not be done without a considerable increase in fares, the result of which will be a decline in bus usage.”