The vendor is GreenPower Motor Co. Inc.'s EV Star mini-buses. They bought 6 of them for testing.
I think the problem is the terrain, distance in the routes, and expected load.
"Out of the box" it looks like they're capable of 100-150 miles, but from what he said, they weren't getting those numbers even on a good day.
From that experience, and from his attitude towards them. I doubt they'll be eager to try out the full sized versions.
The CNG buses they currently run are pretty darn clean, and cheap to operate as it is. So electric will have to be quite a bit better in order to convince them to switch.
I don't have insight to the testing process, but ya, I assume they drove one around before buying 6 of them...
It's like the difference between using the trial period for some new SaaS product, vs. actually buying it and putting it into limited production - you'll find all sorts of things you didn't run into before.
You must also consider the scale they operate at - buying 6 for testing probably isn't too big of a deal if they don't work out long term.
I think the problem is the terrain, distance in the routes, and expected load.
"Out of the box" it looks like they're capable of 100-150 miles, but from what he said, they weren't getting those numbers even on a good day.
From that experience, and from his attitude towards them. I doubt they'll be eager to try out the full sized versions.
The CNG buses they currently run are pretty darn clean, and cheap to operate as it is. So electric will have to be quite a bit better in order to convince them to switch.