Announced on November 30 by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Reuben Sarkar at the Zero Emissions Bus Workshop in London, FCTO has released a new report showing that the average fuel economy of fuel cell electric buses from three fleets is ~6 miles per diesel gallon equivalent or DGE, 1.4 times higher than conventional diesel buses (~4.2 miles per DGE) from one fleet and up to 1.9 times higher than compressed natural gas buses (~3.3 miles per DGE) in another fleet.

This demonstrates significant fuel economy improvement toward the DOE and Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) target of 8 miles per DGE. FCEB durability has reached 23,000 hours, surpassing FCTO's 2016 target of 18,000 hours, and range has reached up to 340 miles, more than 13% above our 2016 target of 300 miles.

The report, entitled Fuel Cell Buses in U.S. Transit Fleets: Current Status 2016 and published annually by NREL, summarizes the progress of fuel cell electric bus (FCEB) development in the United States and discusses the achievements and challenges of introducing fuel cell propulsion in transit. The 2016 report focuses on the August 2015–July 2016 time period for three demonstrations: the Zero Emission Bay Area Demonstration Group, the American Fuel Cell Bus Project at SunLine Transit Agency in California, and the American Fuel Cell Bus Project at the University of California at Irvine (UCI). The results for these buses account for more than 550,000 miles traveled and 59,500 hours of fuel cell power system operation.