Capital Metro testing battery-electric paratransit vans

Working with service advisors Creative Bus Sales and MTM, Capital Metro will demonstrate two fully battery-electric paratransit vans manufactured by Phoenix Motorcars and GreenPower.

The demonstration period comes after Capital Metro received a portion of the Texas Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust settlement in August. The transit agency received almost $3.5 million, the largest contract awarded in Central Texas, which it will use toward the purchase of cleaner, more sustainable vehicles.

The paratransit vans will run out of Capital Metro's paratransit south base facility, and each will be on the streets for two weeks. The Phoenix Motorcar van will operate from Oct. 2 to Oct. 11. The GreenPower van will operate from Oct. 9 to Oct. 18.

The goals of the demonstration are to assess vehicle performance, including range, recharge time, rider comfort, driving comfort, air conditioning performance, and maintainability. Capital Metro also wants to gain experience of this emerging vehicle technology.