Quebec and Ottawa announce the acquisition of 1229 electric buses for the roads of Quebec.
Nova Bus, a company based in Saint-Eustache, won the call for tenders launched in April 2022 and will be responsible for manufacturing.
Quebec will invest approximately $1.1 billion, while Ottawa will contribute some $780 million.
“This is the largest electric bus acquisition project in North America, it is an incredible vote of confidence in the Quebec economy,” said federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc.
He was accompanied by the Quebec Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, and the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, during the announcement Monday morning in Saint-Eustache.
This funding will allow ten public transit organizations to convert their fleet to electric buses.
The vehicles, which have a range of at least 300 kilometres, will be delivered to the Société de transport de Montréal, the Société de transport de l’Outaouais, the Société de transport de Sherbrooke, the Société de transport de Trois-Rivières, the Société de transport de Lévis, Société de transport du Saguenay, Société de transport de Laval, Réseau de transport de Longueuil, Réseau de transport de la Capitale and exo.
Montreal gets half of the buses
Montreal will get the biggest slice of the pie; the contract provides that 607 of the 1,229 electric buses will be delivered to the STM.
Once on the road, these vehicles will represent 25% of the total bus fleet in Quebec, according to Marc Denault, president of the Association du transport urbaine du Québec and the Société de transport de Sherbrooke.
The Société de transports de Montréal (STM) becomes the project agent on behalf of the other transport organizations and will be responsible for supplying the buses.
Governments had required a Canadian content level of 25% and that final assembly be done in Canada.
The structure of the buses will be manufactured at the Nova Bus plant in Saint-François-du-Lac, in Centre-du-Québec, and the vehicles will then be assembled at the Saint-Eustache plant, which employs 800 people.
The first buses should be delivered in 2025.
A reduction of “930,000 tonnes of GHGs”
According to Minister Geneviève Guilbault, “over the full lifespan of the buses”, which corresponds to approximately 16 years, these vehicles will allow a reduction of “930,000 tonnes of GHGs”, by replacing combustion vehicles.
“Transportation is vital. If we want to think about reducing our GHGs, we absolutely have to turn to electric transportation,” indicated the Minister of Transport.
During the press conference, Environment Minister Benoit Charette recalled that 43% of the province’s greenhouse gases come from the transportation sector and that the Government of Quebec has set itself the objective that 55% of public transport buses are electric by 2030.
Traditionally, transit buses run on diesel. Hybrid buses began hitting the roads in 2013, and in recent years a few transit companies have purchased a small amount of electric buses.
“This first major order will help transform the face of mobility in Montreal and will bring about major changes in the operation of our buses. It’s a great challenge, worthy of the talent and expertise of our teams,” said Éric Alan Caldwell, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Société de transport de Montréal.