Manufactured by Build Your Dreams out of Lancaster, the bus was supposed to be a preview of what riders could expect from a capital transit route linking Shasta and several other counties to Sacramento.
The service might still arrive one day but an initial bid to land a $19 million grant to purchase 10 electric buses similar to the one that came to Redding and develop a business plan for the route did not come through.
The Shasta Regional Transportation Agency applied for the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital grant and learned earlier this month it did not get it. The agency vows to try again, but it won't get another opportunity to do so until 2018.
SRTA officials are eager to hear feedback about their grant application.
"We are waiting to talk to Cal STA (State Transportation Agency) about how we did on the grant and if the state actually has a vested interest in the project," Jennifer Pollom, an SRTA senior transportation planner, said after riding the bus from the Redding Civic Auditorium parking lot to Whiskeytown Lake.
The SRTA invited local officials and media to test-ride the bus Tuesday morning. After a presentation on the bus's features, everybody hopped on board and took the short trip to Whiskeytown.
Among the passengers were Anderson City Manager Jeff Kiser; Anderson Mayor Susie Baugh; Shasta Lake City Manager John Duckett; Chuck Aukland, Redding's assistant public works director; and Anne Wallach Thomas, executive director of Shasta Living Streets.
Wallach Thomas said the ride felt smoother than a traditional bus, which she described as "kind of ... jerky."
"It feels more like an airplane," Wallach Thomas said of the electric bus.
The bus brought to Redding has a top speed of 62 mph and labored as it climbed Highway 299 toward Whiskeytown.
Victor Watkins, service manager for Build Your Dreams, said the transmission can be programmed for better acceleration up hills.
Build Your Dreams is a global vehicle company established in China that also makes electric, hybrid and gas-powered cars and SUVs. The company manufactures its electric buses in Lancaster, where it's been for three years, Watkins said.
The buses can be built in about six months. Among the communities that use the buses for mass transit are Denver; Columbus, Missouri; Los Angeles; Gardenia; and the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Watkins said.
Those who have purchased the electric buses do so for financial and environmental reasons, Watkins said, adding that studies show it costs about $1 a mile to operate a diesel bus and 21 cents a mile for its electric counterpart.
The bus brought to Redding had a range of 190 miles and can be recharged in about 90 minutes.
Aukland, of Redding, said electric buses are not on the city's radar right now. Among the factors a small metro system like Redding Area Bus Authority must consider is cost, he said.
A similar-sized diesel bus cost about $400,000.
"What I understand is these buses are $600,000 to $800,000 each," Aukland said, so two electric buses could be as much as $1.6 million
Redding purchases its buses via Federal Transit Administration grants, Aukland said.
"We would be concerned about eating up our grant opportunities," Aukland said. "So as the technology improves, for us maybe the economics will pencil out."
©2016 the Redding Record Searchlight (Redding, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
