Here’s a good little item that nearly slipped past us. City Room reported the other day that the MTA is testing new battery-powered buses:

The city’s other hybrid buses run like hybrid cars. They run off
battery power some of the time and diesel or (in the case of many cars)
gas engines at other times. And the braking action helps charge the
batteries.

The test bus is different in that it runs on battery power all the time.

Jerry Higgins, the director of new bus technology for New York City Transit, said the manufacturer predicts the bus will get about seven miles per gallon, which is about double the fuel efficiency of the transportation authority’s current hybrid bus fleet.

The bus will be tested here for two months and if the authority likes what it sees, it may consider placing an order.

Photo: Librado Romero/The New York Times