Council Agrees to Buy First Zero Emission Vehicle

The City Council agreed to the purchases of 15 public transit vehicles and the first zero emission vehicle for Pasadena Transit on Monday.

But some elected officials considered waiting a year on the purchase.

The City has secured $65 million for a zero emission transit station allowing for the charging of electric vehicles, and a $14.2 million grant for hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure.  

“If we keep operating the vehicles we have now, the higher the risk for deteriorating customer service and a lot of our customers are among the most vulnerable in our community. It also stands to double the amount of emissions we put out in the environment.”

On January 30 the City Council adopted the Pasadena Zero Emission Rollout Plan that acts as a roadmap to transition Pasadena’s public transit fleet to a full deployment of a zero emission bus fleet. 

But Councilmembers considered waiting.

“It almost just seems like we should just run our existing buses to ground, then just wait until we can purchase cleaner vehicles,” said Justin Jones, who eventually voted in favor of the item.

The station will break ground in a year and may not be up for service for another year.

Councilmember Tyron Hampton called on the Department to move ahead without delay.

“We have a real opportunity to make a serious change in our community and there are other communities rolling around in electric vehicles,” said Hampton who said the City should buy the electric vehicles now.

Hampton said the City could make a real change now.

However, the grant does not allow the City to buy 15 electric vehicles and even if the City did purchase the vehicles, the station only breaks ground next year and it is anticipated it won’t be up and running until 2025. 

“We still have another year of construction before we have a transit station that could support these vehicles,” said Department of Transportation Director Laura Cornejo. “We would have no way to support these vehicles. We have no way of charging 15 electric vehicles. We have no way of putting them into service.” 

The objective of these first zero emission buses is to gain operational experience with zero emission technologies to prepare for future vehicle replacements and the implementation of a 100% zero emission fleet. This first zero emission vehicle purchase includes a battery electric bus charger.

In addition, staff will return later this year to purchase the first Pasadena Dial-A-Ride zero emission replacement vehicle.

The Pasadena Transit and Pasadena Dial-A-Ride fleet is made up of 44 vehicles. 

Twenty nine are Pasadena Transit and 15 are Pasadena Dial-A-Ride vehicles. 

There are 12 Pasadena Transit vehicles that have either surpassed or are nearing the end of their useful life and need to be replaced. 

Of the 15 Pasadena Dial-A-Ride vehicles, two have surpassed their useful life and need to be replaced. 

In addition, the City received grant funding to add one vehicle to the Pasadena Dial-A-Ride fleet to provide additional capacity.