Quebec intends to introduce over 1,200 electric city buses

Signage indicating an electric-powered bus is pictured inside a transit bus maintenance facility in Brampton, Ont., on Friday, June 7, 2024. (Arlyn McAdorey / The Canadian Press) (Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press)

There are only 73 electric buses in circulation in Quebec’s various transport networks, according to the Transport Ministry, which says that new electric buses will be delivered in 2025.

The Plan for a Green Economy, published by Quebec in 2020, aims for electric buses to account for 55 per cent of the total fleet of city buses, or nearly 2,200 vehicles, by 2030.

But at present, only 73 electric city buses are on the road, almost 10 times fewer than the 766 electric school buses registered in 2023.

More than half of the electric city buses - 42 - belong to the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).

Scheduled delivery of 1,229 buses

In May 2023, Quebec City and Ottawa announced investments of $1.1 billion and $780 million respectively to acquire 1,229 electric buses, built by Nova Bus of Saint-Eustache, for the province’s various public transit authorities.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Environment Minister Benoit Charette said that the first of these 1,229 buses “will be delivered in 2025”.

The minister added that “delivery has only just begun, but will accelerate over the next few years.”

Charette did not go into detail about the number of buses that will be on the road in the coming months, pointing out that the purchase of the vehicles is the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport.

In an e-mail exchange with The Canadian Press, a Transport Ministry spokesperson was also unable to give an estimate of the number of electric buses that will be delivered to transport companies in 2025.

A complex challenge

Electrifying public transport is a complex challenge, said the Environment Minister on Monday.

“The challenge is greater than for passenger vehicles, if only because of the load they carry and the weight of the vehicle,” but “we’re getting there,” said Charette.

“It’s a less advanced technology than passenger vehicles, but it’s still a viable technology that has been developing at breakneck speed over the past few years, so we’re very confident that we’ll be able to achieve our targets for 2030,” he added.

Midibus: a positive assessment

On Monday, Charette took part in a press conference in his Laurentian constituency, at which the transport operator exo presented a “positive assessment” of the road trials of the electric Midibus built by Letenda.

Letenda, a manufacturer of electric buses based in Longueuil, builds vehicles of various sizes, including the 9-metre Midibus, which was tested by exo in the Saint-Eustache sector for 18 weeks in 2024.

“Because it is smaller than traditional buses, the Midibus will play a key role in less busy areas,” said exo executive director of operations Marc Rousseau.

The Environment Minister welcomed Letenda’s recent entry into the electric bus market.

“Congratulations to Letenda for having the audacity to present a different product that clearly meets specific needs,” he said.

In addition to trains and taxibuses, exo operates 242 bus routes in the Montreal Metropolitan Community (82 municipalities).

Currently, exo has no electric buses in its fleet, but it should receive its first in 2025.

“As far as 9-metre vehicles (such as Letenda’s Midibus) are concerned, we’re looking at 2028,” said Rousseau on Monday, pointing out that the carrier would have to build garages adapted to electric vehicles before users could ride in this type of bus.

Rousseau also emphasised the reliability of Letenda’s buses in different weather conditions.

According to a fact sheet distributed to journalists, the Letenda bus has a range of 362 km in the best weather conditions and 240 km in the worst.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 14, 2025.