MetroLink Tulsa is set to operate nine new all-electric buses by the end of July.
The EVs are manufactured by Gillig, a company well-known to the city’s transit authority, with around 60 of its gas-powered vehicles already operating in Tulsa. The new electric buses come with an approximate $7.2 million price tag.
MetroLink’s leadership is happy to receive vehicles from a manufacturer it has rapport with. The city bought its first all-electric buses four years ago from a different company, Proterra, that at the time, was seen as an EV-contender in the domestic market. Proterra has since filed for bankruptcy and dissolved, leaving transit authorities across the country with electric vehicles that have been difficult to maintain at best.
Tulsa’s transit authority purchased four Proterra ZX5 buses in 2021 for a total of $2,679,000. In addition to promoting a greener alternative to diesel-powered buses, Proterra talked up additional benefits like quieter rides due to the absence of combustion engines.
However, since their purchase, Proterra’s buses have left MetroLink with a litany of problems.
“Those buses have been historically bad for us, along with the charging infrastructure,” said Randy Cloud, MetroLink’s director of maintenance, at an April 3 board meeting.
Cloud said parts needed for the charging stations to work were proprietary to Proterra. After the company’s demise, supplies for the parts dried up, as did any possibility for service.
“So, we’ve got chargers out here that don’t work and no way to get the parts to fix them,” Cloud said.
With Proterra gone, any warranty on the buses are worthless, placing the cost burden on the transit authority alone.
Even when Proterra was still in business, Cloud says the buses often needed service.
He said in the three years they were in operation, the buses required replacements of three drive motors, two transmissions and two axles from Proterra.
“They truly spent more time broke down than they did on the street,” he said.
MetroLink General Manager Scott Marr said Tulsa got off easy compared to other transit authorities across North America.
“There’s some in California that have 150 Proterras to 200 Proterras,” he said. “Here in Tulsa, we just have four, so we’ve been fortunate.”
Marr said he’s much more confident in the buses from Gillig.
“The drivers love them, we love them,” he said.
While the new buses will serve as replacements when they arrive in June, MetroLink is still interested in repairing the Proterra models rather than letting them go to waste.
Cloud said a company out of Colorado has offered transit authorities service via a “traveling mechanic,” who MetroLink said visited Tulsa in March to provide quotes for repairs.
“They can be repaired. It’s going to be costly,” Cloud said.
Cloud said while the Proterra chargers installed can only charge Proterra buses, other chargers that MetroLink has are universal, ostensibly future proofing that section of Tulsa’s charging infrastructure.
