Two New Flyer Xcelsior® XE40 battery-electric heavy-duty transit buses entered regular transit service with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

CTA’s two battery-electric buses were delivered earlier this year as part of a contract awarded to New Flyer in June 2012. CTA will operate these battery-electric buses on six routes throughout Chicago, offering their passengers a cleaner, quieter ride and enjoying fuel and maintenance savings. While CTA’s electric buses are the first New Flyer XE40 heavy-duty transit buses to enter into regular transit service, an earlier prototype bus has undergone all-weather service testing in Winnipeg, Canada and has been operating in shuttle service since March 2014.

The CTA battery-electric buses are equipped with 300 kWh of energy storage providing a range of up to 120 miles on a single charge. The buses feature a Siemens electric drive system, as well as electric subsystems and accessories currently used on New Flyer’s Xcelsior XDE40 diesel-electric hybrid bus.

“We took a very calculated approach when we decided to enter into battery-electric bus technology, knowing how important reliability and up-time is to our customers,” said New Flyer President/CEO Paul Soubry. “The XE40 builds on our proven Xcelsior bus and introduces electric propulsion technology that has been successfully demonstrated in other areas of the transportation industry.”