Colder climates can be a challenge for many electric vehicles to perform well in, but it’s not just the temperature causing problems for Juneau’s public transit system.
Recurring mechanical problems have forced the Capital Transit to park their 40-foot, all-electric passenger bus in the garage for weeks on end. The issue is a faulty wiring harness that the transit agency has repeatedly tried to fix but sometimes still disables one of the bus’s two motors. The bus’s manufacturer, Proterra, still needs to supply Juneau with a replacement part.
Still, electric buses are coming to Alaska. The city of Anchorage tested an electric bus in 2018. Smaller municipalities including Ketchikan and Metlakatla have also announced plans to add electric buses to their fleets.
