Los Angeles is introducing battery-powered double decker buses

Los Angeles will become the first US city to introduce electric double deck buses, electric vehicle maker Proterra announced today.

The world’s biggest double-decker bus maker, Alexander Dennis, will use Proterra’s battery technology in the two-storey buses which be on LA roads by 2019 as part of a fleet operated by California public transit group Foothill Transit.

Proterra’s E2 battery technology can power a bus for 1100 miles — or 1770km on a single charge.

Electric buses are expected to be a faster growing market than electric cars in the short-term, Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance research group recently reported.

The electrification of road transport is expected to ramp up in the second half of the 2020s. “E-buses” will make up 84 per cent of all bus sales globally by 2030.

That will help drive a “rapid ramp-up in the demand of cobalt and lithium” amid a revised expectation that electric vehicles on the road will number at least 125 million — and as much as 220 million– by 2030, says the International Energy Agency.

The double-decker bus deal annunced today reflected “the mass-market shift to electrification and the growth of zero-emission technology transfer enabling heavy-duty fleets to go 100 percent electric” Proterra said in a statement.

Bus operator Foothill Transit trialled the double-decker buses in downtown Los Angeles last year.

It’s planning to transition to a 100 per cent electric fleet by 2030.

“As congestion intensifies across Southern California, every inch of road space matters, so increasing passenger occupancy while maintaining comfort and a singular bus footprint is a public transit solution we’re really excited to introduce,” said Foothill’s executive director Doran Barnes.