The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) partnered with the City of Augusta for a successful award under the Federal Transit Administration’s 2022 Low or No Emission Vehicle Program (Low-No). CTE is working with the City of Augusta’s transit agency, Augusta Transit, to deploy five GILLIG battery electric buses. Augusta has also partnered with Georgia Power to design and install three ChargePoint chargers.
CTE will use its Zero-Emission Smart Deployment Methodology to guide this project. The current project timeline includes eight phases: Project Planning & Initiation; Requirements Analysis; Bus Procurement & Build; Infrastructure Procurement, Design & Build; Bus & Infrastructure Deployment; Deployment Validation and Key Performance Indicators (KPI); Project Close-Out; and Project Management, Administration, Reporting, and Control.
Once the BEBs are delivered, CTE will collect data as part of the performance validation to validate route performance, auxiliary/HVAC load tests, regenerative braking tests, charging and battery capacity tests, and driver efficiency tests. After the buses enter into revenue service, CTE will collect and analyze operational data in the form of quarterly KPI reports for a period of 12 months.
CTE traveled to Augusta, GA for the project kickoff on October 16, 2023. The project kickoff included the Bus Procurement Workshop, Infrastructure Workshop, and the Stakeholder Engagement Workshop. The project is anticipated to be completed in the second quarter of 2026.
