Miami-Dade and Broward spent $126 million to buy 117 electric buses and build a new clean, Green Fleet charging station. This was a progressive solution aimed at saving South Florida money, spewing pollution and reducing fossil fuel buses that contribute to climate change and health issues.
Today, most of the EV buses remain on the road.
Most people broke in less than a year and were pulled out of the route while waiting for a backlog of maintenance work. In addition to repairing the headache, Protera, a California-based company that produced the bus, later filed for bankruptcy, leaving the county with a lack of parts and a bundle of vehicles they couldn’t fix.
How badly surrounded is the EV fleet? Miami-Dade only uses 5-7 of the county’s 75 EV buses, depending on the day. At Broward, Broward’s fleet of 42 EVS buses was unable to run the route earlier this month.
“When you know it’s definitely working, use the bus,” Broward’s Transportation Director Coree Cuff Lonergan told the Miami Herald. “And with EVs that don’t happen frequently.”
In the filing included in Proterra’s bankruptcy filing, Broward reported that the EV bus broke down every 600 miles. This is more than seven times the county’s aging diesel fleet, and usually requires maintenance every 4,500 miles.
South Florida isn’t the only one that has the Proterrabus suffering from problems. Batteries are frozen in Chicago. Austin keeps the entire fleet in his garage. Asheville was unable to get parts to repair the broken door. And the Biden administration recalled the risk that burned hundreds of people.
No parts or repairs
The most pressing issue is the lack of parts, both counties say.
“Suppose Apple has gone out of business. If your iPhone breaks down, a third-party company could fix it, but if it’s a glitch and software issue, then perhaps if you’re lucky, it’s because of PA Consulting’s electric transport if you’re in good luck. “We are pleased to announce that Matt Richtash, a New York-based principal consultant at the New York-based company.
Bass’ unique technology brings about other complications. Not every mechanic can fix them or debug a software system. That’s not just a problem for South Florida and the US EV fleet. In the case of one Startup Shutdown in China, the driver could no longer access the apps that controlled the lock and AC, or could not check the mileage and battery status on the dashboard.
A new company called Phoenix EV purchased Proterra’s transit bath manufacturing business in February 2024.
Phoenix did not reply to calls or emails from the Herald, but last year’s press release showed it was ready to deal with repairs and parts backlogs. “We have already identified attractive growth opportunities when adding transit buses to our product products, serving existing Proterra Transit customers and building long-term relationships with them. I’m looking forward to it.”
Follow Tampa Bay’s top headlines
Subscribe to our free Daystarter newsletter
We provide you with the latest news and information you need to know every morning.
You’re all signed up!
Want more free weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Check out all options
However, this is the first time a company that manufactures medium-sized vehicles has boarded a sturdy bus. Broward has doubts about the supply chain. Most of the county buses have been waiting for more than a year with parts and pending warranty services. In Protera’s bankruptcy filing, Broward’s county lawyer wrote, “Phoenix lacks the financial ability to implement contracts, particularly the guarantee clause.”
EV buses are important purchases and were paid in transport sales tax primarily with the help of state and federal grants. Miami-Dade, whose taxes are half-penny, spent $72 million on 75 buses. Broward, who charges a full penny, has signed to pay $54 million for 42 buses.
Phoenix is taking several steps to maintain business with the county. The Anaheim-based company agreed to extend the warranty for all 75 buses on Miami-Dade, reducing the price of 13 Broward buses by $100,000 and reducing the price of $1.3 million in discounts. But Broward still pays for 11 buses with delivery pending, and the county is seriously concerned about the company’s “empty promise.” The county’s transport department said they were refusing to arrive.
“We’re more than skeptical,” Longeran said. “We’re not paying for things that don’t work.”
Currently, the EV Bass cemetery spreads between two facilities in Miami-Dade, three yards and Broward.
On Wednesday morning, the Miami-Dade Transportation Department showed the Herald of EV buses parked at the Coral Way Maintenance Facility. 17 EV buses were parked in the rear corner while other buses at the facility headed out that day and got paint touch-ups in the garage.
None of them were connected to the Protera charger. The hood was left open, revealing the battery and other components. On each side there was a sticker called “Semi-penny at work.”
Early stage industry
EV buses are an early industry. There are only about 6,000 electric buses around the US, of which 1,000 are school buses, said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James, an investment banking company that has been looking into the energy industry for 20 years. .
“Building an electric bus is not rocket science, but adoption curves are slow and the biggest reason is expensive. If the entire supply chain is not developed, it can be difficult to get parts and services.” Molchanov said.
Protera appears to have been unprepared for the potential potholes that businesses face. The company’s 2023 quarterly financial application revealed that the company lost money on each bus that was sold.
The Infrastructure Investment and Employment Act (IIJA), passed under former President Joe Biden, allocated $5.6 billion to subsidies for electric buses.
Stan Cross, director of electricity transport for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, says the main intent of federal funding is to reinvest in American manufacturing so that it can build a durable supply chain for electric vehicles and batteries. He said that it is.
“I think it’s a recognized issue that needs to be resolved,” Cross said. “These maintenance issues with legacy protera transit buses are problematic for the cities that deal with them. Still, from a market perspective, they are the uplift of the path to electrification that we can learn.”
However, it is not clear how the program will continue under the Trump administration, which has already cut the Biden administration’s infrastructure investment and employment laws.
It’s not a dead end
For now, plans to electrify the fleet are technically in place in both counties.
However, Broward’s Transport Director said the experience made him interested in exploring other paths of greener and cleaner transport. Broward hired a team of engineers to complete an evaluation of the electric bus, ready in a year to determine what the options are going on.
Miami said it was participating in a parts sharing program with bus maintenance experts across the country to discuss the opportunities and opportunities for transport properties to replace parts.
The EV discussion remains the same. Especially when it means phased out old, dirty diesel. Harvard researchers have found that each school bus can save up to $247,600 on climate and health benefits per bus due to air pollution.
Preston Gilliard, who has been driving buses in Miami-Dade for 12 years, said they were just fine. He cannot drive them frequently, but when they work, the electric bus is “the top of the line”.
“Brakes, acceleration, it’s a better ride and much quieter,” Gilliard said. “It’s like a fleet’s Cadillac.”
And some cities that went with other manufacturers had better luck. Hallandale Beach is the first city of South Florida to offer zero-emissions across the fleet, purchased from BYD, a company founded in China in 2003.
By replacing Hallandale’s five gas-fueled shuttle buses with nine EV buses, we reduced wait times in half and expanded the route. Hallandale Beach City spokesperson Amy Adler Cook said that the bus that has been on the street for 10 months has undergone regular maintenance repairs under warranty, but is still in full operation. It’s there.
In 2024, the Federal Transport Agency (FTA) recognized the challenges of four major bus companies declaring bankruptcy or leaving the market in an online meeting. Since then, we have updated our bus purchase guidelines as a result. This includes a revised payment structure.
Miami-Dade said they took these guidelines into consideration when purchasing 100 electric buses from Canadian bus manufacturer New Flyer. So far, 17 have been delivered and could be billed at an existing station that has entered the ground of the Proterra Fleet.
Many of these new flyer buses will be used to operate the department’s new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service along the South Miami-Dade Transit Way. The Transportation Department said.
“New Flyer is one of the oldest bus manufacturers and has a great reputation across the vehicle line,” wrote Luis Espinoza, a spokesman for the transportation division, in the Herald.
New Flyer is a manufacturer that Miami-Dade knows well. The county also purchased 560 new flyer renewable gas buses to phase out the diesel fleet.
The new flyer also reduced the number of parts in the new battery enclosure design to 90%, from 250 to less than 50 copies. The idea should be easier to fix with a bus with fewer parts.
Miami-Dade claims that parked EVs will not affect bus schedules or routes.
But in 2021, Robert Villar, then director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Transport and Public Works, told Miami today that EV buses will be “distributed to particularly unfair communities.”
Liberty City resident Wendell Morrison said he took the bus as much as he could remember, but for no reason there were few buses on the road.
“That’s not fair,” said Morrison, who was on Route 77 bus north on Tuesday. “The elderly cannot stop. It’s hot. No one will listen.”
This Climate Report is funded by Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editing control for all content.
The story was originally published by the Miami Herald, and was published by the Florida Clemate Report Network, the Miami Herald, the Sun Sentinel, the Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media, and The The The The The We shared it in collaboration with our partner’s initiative, the Florida Creemate Report Network. Tampa Bay Times.
