Piloting Saint John’s Low-Carbon Migration Strategy with battery electric buses

Goals
As part of the City of Saint John’s Low-Carbon Migration Strategy (LCMS), the City wishes to pilot a variety of commercial zero-emission vehicles for use in the transit and municipal fleet. A feasibility study and financial assessment of these vehicles have identified them for fleetwide adoption beginning as early as 2025, in Phase 2 of the LCMS. Ultimately the goal of the study is to confirm the feasibility of these vehicles and refine cost expectations before fleetwide rollout. Any performance gaps in using zero emission vehicles will need to be identified and mitigated to match the performance of existing technologies . 
Outline
The pilot is inclusive of two groups of vehicles, transit buses (Phase 1 – Part 1) and municipal service vehicles (Phase 1 – Part 2), all of which will be zero-emission. The first part of the pilot focusing on transit buses is planned be launched in September 2022 for a duration of one year. The second part of the pilot, focused on the municipal service vehicles will follow later and such that the experiences and lessons learned from the operations of the pilot transit buses can be leveraged.
The transit buses will be used to test the implementation of a new on-demand hybrid transit system, aimed to improve efficiency and service level by leveraging new technologies. The transit vehicles will include the lease of a 40-feet Battery Electric Bus (BEB) to benchmark the performance of high ridership routes which will serve as the primary connection across the City and to popular destinations. Six (6) 20-feet BEBs will be leased to serve to connect low ridership areas to transit hubs. Designs to replace fixed routes with on-demand transit have already been completed for four (4) service areas spanning the City’s boundary. 
Pilot Themes
Innovative: The City wishes to use this pilot as an opportunity to test new modes to improve levels of service, generate operational cost savings, reduce energy fuel/energy consumption, mitigate climate impact, and improve human health. 
Transformative: The City aims to use the benchmarked performance of the pilot vehicles and new service model to begin its broader transition to zero-emission vehicles. The primary outcome of the study will be to best understand how adoption can be scaled fleetwide.
Public Education: As part of the Pilot, the City wishes to introduce the technology to the public with open viewings throughout the City. 
Knowledge Transfer: This pilot will be an opportunity to build familiarity throughout the City workforce. Neighboring municipalities will be invited to visit the City for a demonstration of how piloted vehicles are performing.
City Climate Goals: Pilots like this will allow the City to refine its understanding of procurement and operating costs, replacement ratios, and additional support equipment required to initiate a broader transition to zero emission technologies and eliminate the production of tailpipe emissions. 
Pilot Framework
Schedule: First deployments are scheduled for June to allow the City to train its staff on the vehicles and execute public education events. The on-demand pilot service will launch in September followed by municipal services in late 2022 and early 2023. 
Operational KPI: Key performance indicators (KPI) will be developed to track the performance of battery electric vehicles and the supporting equipment.
Feedback: Surveys are planned to solicit feedback from City staff at the beginning, midpoint, and end of the pilot. Feedback from the public will be solicited using various methods. 
Risk Mitigation: The vehicle OEMs have committed to providing on-site maintenance packages as part of the leasing agreement to ensure that vehicles achieve satisfactory uptime.
Stakeholder Consultations: The need for the study has been communicated and endorsed by all City department stakeholders, the City’s Senior Leadership Team and by City Council.