The Toronto Transit Commission, which already operates North America’s largest electric bus fleet is looking to spend $300 million on their green fleet expansion, which includes key partnerships with Toronto Hydro and Ontario Power Generation

Editor’s Note: this story was updated to reflect OPG and Toronto Hydro’s role as described in the TTC’s 2021 board report.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is taking a leap forward in its race to total fleet electrification by adding another 300 electric buses to existing 60 pure electric vehicle fleet, which is already the largest of any city in North America.

The latest purchases, which carries a $300-million price tag, also comes just six months after the TTC approved procurement of an additional 300 hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) buses for $390 million.

The HEVs will begin to arrive in 2022, followed by the fully electric vehicles in 2023, with the aim of having all 300 of the newest buses in service by early 2025.

TTC Commissioner and city councillor Brad Bradford broke the news in a tweet: “Toronto is home to North America’s largest fleet of electric buses — and it’s growing! Today…we authorized the procurement of 300 e-buses to bolster our surface transit network and move us forward on our goal of a zero-emissions fleet by 2040.”

In a follow-up interview with Electric Autonomy Canada, Bradford describes the purchase as “a very significant and monumental order. It demonstrates our commitment at the TTC to being a leader in long-range battery electric buses.”

Building on long-term plan

The expansion is further realization of the TTC’s Green Bus Technology Plan, which previously paved the way for the 60 electric bus purchase. In that deal, the TTC bought 20 buses each from three different vendors: Proterra, New Flyer and BYD Canada. In 2019, it put the first of those vehicles into operation, with a plan to monitor their performance in a head-to-head evaluation, the preliminary results of which were released this week.

That study, looking at nine different criteria, found New Flyer’s NFI XE40 was the only fully electric bus model to meet or exceed the TTC’s targets in four key domains: system compatibility; accessibility; vehicle performance; and vendor performance.

“[W]hile improvements are required to all eBus platforms, all manufacturers
have demonstrated a commitment to making the required improvements to our existing
fleet and to their next generation of long-range battery-electric buses,” reads the TTC’s report on the evaluation. “The lessons learned to date found no ‘show stoppers’ to the TTC’s progress toward full-fleet electrification.”

But there are no clear indicators drawn from the report in terms of which model of buses the TTC will be buying. The Request For Proposal (RFP) to fill the upcoming 300 bus order from the TTC is available to all vendors and Bradford says the transit agency is “open” to all options available on the market. What is indicated in terms of buying strategy is the TTC is coordinating with other transit agencies to benefit from a single electric bus “procurement specification with the immediate benefit of reducing cost through economies of scale.”

The performance baseline used to compare the three electric buses to was set by the TTC’s Nova HEV buses, the first of which went into service in 2018 and have, by the TTC’s account, exceeded in all nine criteria categories. The TTC has 225 HEVs from Nova Bus, currently, in its fleet.

Bradford said all of the vehicles’ engines performed well in the environment and didn’t struggle with any of the more harsh weather Toronto gets throughout the year. The head-to-head evaluation demonstrated electric bus motors perform well. Generally the issues in the report arose with body corrosion and accessibility challenges — both of which Bradford is confident can be remedied.

“The nice thing about this is that it is an evolving technology. So even what was on offer in the marketplace five years ago is different than what’s available today and it will be different than what is available in two or three years. The range is increasing, the charge time is decreasing, reliability and performance of these vehicles is improving.”

Three-way partnership

A critical element of any fleet’s expansion is its ability to scale charging infrastructure simultaneously with vehicle procurement. On a project this big, the TTC saw its natural partners to be Toronto Hydro-Electric System Ltd., a utility, and Ontario Power Generation, the province’s largest energy producer.

Toronto Hydro is responsible for the “responsible for upgrading the electrical supply to TTC properties” while OPG “co-invests, designs, builds, owns and operates electrification infrastructure on TTC property,” according to the TTC’s 2021 board report.

Previous reporting by Electric Autonomy last fall took a deeper look at OPG’s fleet support services, in which the TTC partnership was referenced. Bradford credits the partnership with making the TTC’s transition thus far a success and he says the future for the agency is green.

“We’re thrilled here at the TTC to be leading on this [electric transition] front. It brings accountability to our commitment to reducing our greenhouse gases as a transit agency,” says Bradford. “I’m bullish. I’m optimistic about the future of battery-charged electric buses.”