Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/10/2012 (2895 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS From left: Winnipeg city councillor Russ Wyatt;; Sailesh Thaker, vice-president, Industry and Stakeholder Relations, Sustainable Development Technology Canada; Dave Chomiak, Manitoba minister of Innovation, Energy and Mines; Lawrence Toet, MP for Elmwood Transcona; and Paul Soubry, CEO, New Flyer Industries at the federal funding announcement for the building of electric buses at New Flyer Industries in the head office in Winnipeg, Friday.

New Flyer Industries is forging ahead with a rapid-charge battery-electric bus with $3.4 million in help from the federal government's Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund.

The Winnipeg bus company has one prototype built and will now go ahead and build four more.

Winnipeg Transit has agreed to test a small fleet of them probably starting in 2014.

Total cost of the project is about $10 million.

The battery-powered buses will likely save operators about $500,000 in fuel costs over a typical 12-year lifespan of a city bus.