Eric Galatas | Colorado News Connection

The Colorado Department of Transportation is investing nearly $32 million to help local governments and other stakeholders transition to electric vehicles, including adding new electric buses to transit fleets.

Matthew Inzeo, communications director with the Colorado Department of Transportation, believes this initial investment will help set the stage for towns and cities to continue to add more electric vehicles in future years.

“Even though we’re talking about vehicles by the dozens, it also indicates that our local transit systems are now in a position where they’re ready to take these cleaner vehicles into their fleets,” he said.

The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority will replace ten diesel-fueled buses with battery-powered vehicles. Breckenridge will add seven, Winter Park and Avon will each add two, and Boulder, Fort Collins and Telluride will each add one new electric bus to their fleets. Nonprofits serving children and people with disabilities are also getting money to purchase electric vans.

Investments are also being made in the infrastructure required to power and maintain electric vehicles, including connecting new solar canopies to the electric grid, and adding more charging stations. Inzeo says these investments can help reduce dozens of trips currently made by car, and get polluting diesel buses off the roads.

“The technology has actually gotten to a place where they can be rolling around your city without polluting at all. That’s an incredible win. And really just easy low-hanging fruit that we can finally go pick to make local streets and local communities have cleaner air,” Inzeo continued.

Money for electric buses, new facilities and infrastructure comes from Colorado’s Clean Transit Enterprise created in 2021, and settlement funds the state received from Volkswagen designed to offset the impacts of the company’s diesel-emissions cheating scandal.