Our brand new electric buses will be in service soon, and to prepare for this we installed bus charging stations at Keizer Transit Center. The inductive charging technology allow a battery electric bus to pull into its assigned bay like normal - over the in-ground charger - and begin charging immediately, similar to charging your phone on a wireless charging pad. The chargers were installed at bays that will serve our first Zero Emissions Corridor, Route 11, plus additional bays we can use as we electrify other routes in the future. The project was a partnership with Portland General Electric, InductEV, JH Kelly, Federal Transit Administration, Center for Transportation and the Environment, Cummins, and Gillig.
As you might expect, on-route charging will extend the operating time of the electric buses, but they will still need to begin each day fully charged. Overnight charging will take place at our Del Webb Operations Headquarters. Additional plug-in charging infrastructure has been installed there as well.