Calif.’s Victor Valley Transit delivered five new Battery Electric Buses (BEBs) to Barstow passengers this week. This is the first time passengers in the City of Barstow and neighboring communities will get to ride the New Flyer Xcelsior XE Battery Electric buses. The Battery Electric Buses (BEB) are another step toward VVTA’s commitment to operating strictly zero emission vehicles by 2035.

In 2018, the VVTA Board adopted its approval of Resolution Number 18-04 “its commitment to operate an 100% all electric and hydrogen fuel cell fleet and establish a goal to meet this objective by 2035.” The first seven BEBs have been in service throughout the Victor Valley since 2019.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) enacted its proposed Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) in 2018. In response, VVTA got out in front of the regulation, taking advantage of all the available incentives before actual regulation deadlines. For instance, VVTA was able to take advantage of the VW Mitigation incentive for purchasing Zero-Emission buses. Volkswagen (VW) Environmental Mitigation Trust provides about $423 million for California to mitigate the excess nitrogen oxide emissions caused by VW's use of illegal emissions testing defeat devices in certain VW diesel vehicles. VVTA applied for these funds to apply to the purchase battery-electric buses.  The agency was awarded $180,00 per each of the five BEBs ordered for Barstow.