The roughly 4,100 daily commuters who use transit in St. Albert, Alberta are about to get a sweet, new ride. The bedroom community to Edmonton will become the first city in Canada to use long-range, all electric buses for public transit. Rendering of St. Albert's long-range, battery-electric bus, supplied and manufactured by BYD. Rendering courtesy City of St. Albert

The three, 35-foot-long vehicles have a battery range of up to 240 kilometres. Perhaps more importantly, the electric batteries are able to withstand the municipality’s fierce climate and function at temperatures below -40 degrees Celsius. The batteries also come with a 12-year warranty. China-based BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, will deliver the buses to St. Albert in the late summer or early fall of 2016. The buses will cost $3.2 million, but two-thirds of that cost has been offset by the province’s Green Transit Incentives Program (GreenTRIP), St. Albert Transit director Kevin Bamber told National Observer. First established in 2010, the $2 billion GreenTRIP has paid out nearly $1.6 billion in transit-related investments such as vehicles, terminals and expanded light rail transit.

Bamber didn’t know the amount of greenhouse gas emissions the new buses would offset, but said the city will remove three of its older diesel buses from operation when the new electric ones arrive. St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse said carbon footprint reduction and minimizing impact on the environment is a city council priority. Edmonton is also currently testing the same buses.