SLO buses go electric, here’s how
The sounds of diesel buses in San Luis Obispo may soon be a thing of the past. In August, the city of San Luis Obispo celebrated the addition of two all-electric buses to the SLO Transit fleet and announced its plan to introduce six more.
The new buses are part of an initiative that aims to move the city toward its goal of carbon neutrality by 2035.
The local transit authorities participating in zero-emission bus or ZEB integration are SLO Transit and SLO Regional Transit Authority (RTA). SLO Transit’s buses run within the city of San Luis Obispo and SLO RTA’s buses oversee the longer routes throughout the county.
According to SLO RTA Executive Director Geoff Straw, this was also done to comply with the state’s Innovative Clean Transit Regulation.
“Twenty-five percent of the buses we buy beginning in 2026 need to be clean fuel zero emission.” Straw said. “So it’s either battery electric or hydrogen. Those are the two technologies that are possible.”
Both agencies are working together toward the city’s climate goal. Right now, SLO Transit is only operating one of its two electric buses on local routes. The second bus will come online when the city’s charging station is completed later this month.
City of San Luis Obispo Mobility Services Manager Alex Fuchs said they’re developing a solar array to help meet the need for more energy. This includes working with PG&E on transformer upgrades to help offset the strain on local power sources.
For SLO RTA, phasing in the new electric fleet may be more challenging. The agency has built a $27 million fuel-free facility with two electric charging stations, but the buses they ordered in 2022 have not yet arrived.
“At the time when we designed it and built it, we had not yet received an electric bus nor the funding to operate them,” Straw said.
With a typical turnaround time of two years, SLO RTA expects its first two buses to arrive in March 2024. Once they do, however, the vehicles may not have the range to cover the Regional Transit Authority’s typical routes. Each day SLO RTA covers the Cuesta Grade 16 times, over 300 daily miles.
“There is not an electric bus out there that is a battery electric bus that can make that,” Straw said. “So we’re really watching hydrogen as a possible solution,”
In the meantime SLO RTA plans to run the zero-emission buses on shorter routes, most likely in the Paso Robles and Five Cities areas in Arroyo Grande. It will explore additional chargers that would allow drivers to top up their batteries throughout the day.
In addition to the two buses on the way, SLO RTA expects five additional vehicles sometime in 2025.
