Long Beach Transit’s new battery-electric buses — scheduled to be in service in about two months — made their public debut Monday.

The transit provider parked a pair of the new zero-emissions vehicles near the crossing of First Street and Promenade in downtown Long Beach on a sweltering Monday morning before giving assembled dignitaries and the curious a chance to escape the heat by taking a short ride in one of the air-conditioned vehicles.

The bus’ air conditioner generated more noise than the bus’ propulsion system while Long Beach Transit training supervisor Pat Hernandez took his passengers around the city’s shoreline area and back to downtown.

“It’s a nice smooth ride. It’s very easy,” Hernandez said.

Long Beach Transit plans to have 10 battery-electric buses on the road before the end of November. Chief Executive Kenneth McDonald said he wants to have an entirely clean fleet by 2020.

“LBT will be a major contributor in cleaning the air in the great city of Long Beach and our neighboring communities,” he said. “Long Beach Transit’s downtown Passport Route will be 100 percent battery powered. We will be sending additional battery-powered buses around our greater service area so that all of our customers can experience these new state-of-the-art buses.”

The road to zero emissions

Hernandez and others at Long Beach Transit have had a few months to test the new buses, which have made their way into the transit provider’s depot after several years’ worth of work and a big bureaucratic headache. Indeed, Long Beach Transit’s governing board had to cast two votes to approve a procurement deal with bus manufacturer BYD Motors after a conflict involving federal contracting rules.

Federal Transit Administration officials objected to the first agreement, approved in March 2013, on the grounds that BYD was not then eligible to benefit from a contract involving federal grant dollars because the company was not yet in line with Washington’s rules intended to minority- and women-owned firms, which in this case could include BYD subcontractors, have a chance of getting a piece of federally-funded business.

That led to BYD and Long Beach Transit nixing their initial agreement in March 2014. Long Beach Transit’s management then declared a second bidding competition. BYD, which by then had achieved compliance with federal rules, came out on top again. The transit board approved the second deal in April 2015.

In making that decision, the transit board committed to spending about $11 million on a fleet of 10 buses and a wireless charging system from Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification Inc. of a Salt Lake City.

BYD Motors is the American branch of BYD Co. Ltd., a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer. BYD Motors has offices in Los Angeles and an assembly plant in Lancaster.

Infrastructure needs

Long Beach Transit officials plan for the wireless charging system to be installed near the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center grounds, spokesman Kevin Lee said. The transit board voted in July to spend nearly $1.5 million on that project, and the Culver City firm of Fast-Track Construction Corp. won the contract.

On Monday, after Long Beach Transit officials showed off the new vehicles, the transit board awarded another contract worth nearly $1 million with Eco Energy Solutions, Inc. of Chatsworth to build a parking lot and charging station for the new vehicles at Long Beach Transit’s depot by its headquarters in the Cambodia Town area of Long Beach.

That award replaces a previous contract the transit board approved in April, before Long Beach Transit staffers in the purchasing department concluded the agreement didn’t meet all of Long Beach Transit’s requirements, according to a staff report.

Despite the decision for a new contract, Lee said Long Beach Transit currently has the capability to charge its new buses and have the new buses in service by November.