Charlotte-Douglas airport working to ‘go green’ and cut bus carbon emissions

CHARLOTTE (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) — As new technology meant to cut carbon emissions and operating costs becomes more widely available, municipalities are jumping on the EV-Bandwagon, moving fleets of trucks and busses from gas and diesel to electric.

Charlotte-Douglas airport will be getting the latest round of FAA stimulus money. More than 3.8 million dollars set aside for Zero Emissions vehicles and infrastructure.

Engineer Micheal Pisarski operates a fleet of electric vehicles. He told Fox 46 the switch to electric is simple and cuts costs by tenfold.

“The mechanical simplicity — it’s just brilliant and it was really my Nissan leaf, my car —  after 100,000 miles I still haven’t change the brakes.”

The idea of using electric busses is catching on in city’s across the country, a perfect proving ground for the technology according to Pisarski.

“You know exactly how long the bus is guaranteed to stand at the terminal — so you have time to charge up.”

Even though a 2018 CATS study showed that electric busses are costlier to operate and purchase than compressed natural gas busses, the technology is catching on and the airport will be able to add to their fleet with these FAA funds.

“Per bus, it’s 10% cheaper to operate but it’s also clean, quiet and I think it’s one of the best viable choices we have to replace combustion engines.”