BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The 7 News I-Team learned that all ten of the NFTA electric buses are no longer on the roads because of a recall from the manufacturer.
About one year ago the NFTA debuted electric buses with the goal to go green. The buses, which cost about one million dollars each, run on lithium batteries.
"We thought it was important to be a good neighbor to the community to make certain that we have buses that have zero or low emission," Kim Minkel, NFTA's executive director, said in April 2022.
After testing the buses in February, Kelly Khatib, NFTA's communications manager, said New Flyer, the company the NFTA purchased the buses from, sent out a safety recall for an 'Energy Storage System' or ESS.
An ESS is a sealed box on the bus that has the battery modules, sensors, wiring, and coolant to moderate battery temperature.
When you have a manufacturer recall we did the right thing. Safety first as always. Make sure we were protecting our operators as well as our riders," Khatib said.
According to the recall, if the ESS has a leak "and is uncorrected, liquid can accumulate, leading to an electrical short, increasing the risk of a fire." Khatib said once they were notified, the NFTA took the buses off the road in mid-March.
"It's one of those things that you kind of expect when you're in the testing phase. Everyone wants things to go perfectly the first time out, right, but that's just not realistic and that's why we did test them first," Khatib.
Previously, New Flyer had an issue with its lithium batteries over the summer when an electric bus in Hamden, Connecticut, caught fire.
U-Crest Fire Department Chief Joseph Dahm said these kinds of fires are difficult to extinguish.
"There's really no proper way to extinguish them right now, just with large quantities of water. They heat up very quickly and they can cause destruction very quickly," Dahm said.
Khatib said they're working with New Flyer and hope to get the buses on the road within six to eight weeks.
"We're figuring out exactly which steps they're gonna take," Khatib said.
When the NFTA first debuted its electric buses, it said the goal is to have 25% of its fleet electric by 2025 and all of its fleet electric by 2035. Khatib said that is still the goal.
