GreenPower Motor Co. Inc. announced its EV350 40-Foot all-electric transit bus outperformed its original range expectations, traveling 205 miles with 50% SOC (state of charge) remaining battery power after the trip.

The GreenPower EV350 was recently purchased by Porterville Transit, and was driven under its own power from San Joaquin Valley to Newport Beach, Calif., to showcase the vehicle at the CALACT Spring 2018 Conference.

To get to Newport Beach, the driver had to travel over California’s Grapevine, notable for having far steeper hills than would be typical for a transit route. This means the bus not only outperformed its range expectations but did so along a more demanding route than its typical duty cycle.

“This is a monumental achievement, not only for GreenPower, but for the industry. We drove this bus 205 miles over steep and varied terrain to reach the conference. Even after that lengthy trip, half of the battery power remained,” said GreenPower’s President Brendan Riley. “GreenPower has raised the bar for the whole industry as this range allows our bus to meet 98% of transit properties daily route needs.”

GreenPower expects to deliver three more buses to Porterville by the end of May and the remaining five buses by the summer.