Regina transit electric buses get first taste of winter weather conditions

Regina Transit is seeing how their electric buses perform in Prairie winter conditions during their first cold-weather season. Sierra D’Souza Butts reports.

After being included in Regina’s transit fleet, passengers are sharing their opinions on the city’s new electrical vehicle buses.

With being a daily user of Regina Transit services Marina Pelletier said she noticed a slight difference between electric and diesel buses.

“It’s a lot quieter with the electric buses. Diesel is louder but, also warmer,” Pelletier said.

This is the first winter for the seven new electric buses after they were added to the city’s transit fleet earlier this year.

However with the cold weather, Pelletier shared her concerns.

“Honestly they’re pretty good, but at the same time during the winter time they are probably not the best because the battery would probably die before it makes a full trip around due to how cold it gets here,” she shared.

As part of the city’s Energy & Sustainability Framework and Action Plan, the electric buses were added in support of Regina’s plan to become a renewable, net-zero community by 2050.

The city has more than 140 buses in its transit fleet. Currently, seven are electric with 13 more planned for 2026.

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The first seven electric buses cost $1.37 million per unit, with half the cost shared with the federal government as part of its zero-emission transit fund, an investment initially announced in February 2024.

“The difference [between diesel and electric] is the propulsion system. Most of our busses, are diesel so they’re a diesel engine that are propelled that way, where the electric busses are battery powered,” Nathan Luhning explained, director of transit for the City of Regina.

Aside from the inside, electric buses can be spotted on Regina streets by their lack of exhaust at the back.

According to the city, the electric buses can travel 220 kilometres every day which is almost half the range of their diesel counterparts.

“The busses that we purchased are from a reliable manufacturer, Nova. They performed well,” said Luhning.

“The busses they performed as expected in this winter. We’ve not seen a noticeable drop in range, and all the busses are in operation and on the road.”

Luhning added the city’s electric buses do carry a diesel heating system so it does not draw on the battery power.

Between the city and the federal government, more than $52 million has been invested into electric buses and infrastructure for their charging stations.

- With files from Donovan Maess.