ATLANTA — A nearly $22.3 million federal grant announced last week will help Georgia State transform its aging diesel Panther Express bus fleet into the first all-electric university bus fleet in the Southeast.
One of the first universities in the country to take its buses electric, Georgia State’s conversion will mean less noise, less pollution and healthier, more enjoyable trips around the Atlanta Campus for its students, faculty and staff.
Below, we talk to Vice President for Finance and Administration Brad Freeman about the grant and when the new buses will begin rolling onto Atlanta’s streets.
Question: How is Georgia State paying for an all-new fleet of electric buses for the Panther Express shuttle service?
Answer: In coordination with our office of Sustainability Initiatives, we applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration for a grant to purchase 18 new electric buses and 10 charging stations that can charge two buses simultaneously.
The funding was appropriated under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress, and this round of grants from FTA is being used to purchase 1,700 low- and zero-emission buses around the country. Of the 130 projects funded around the U.S., ours is the only one in Georgia.
Q: Why is it important to make this transition to electric buses, and when will our Atlanta Campus community start seeing them on the road?
A: With our transportation partner, MV Transportation, we run a fleet of 21 buses four to five days a week, 50 weeks a year to stops all over our downtown Atlanta footprint — from the Rialto Center for the Arts in the Fairlie-Poplar Historic District to our housing corridor along Piedmont Avenue to our athletics neighborhood in Summerhill. And all of our diesel buses are at or beyond their 10-year life expectancy. Some are nearing 20 years old.
Starting in 2025, we’ll begin phasing in the new all-electric buses to replace the 35- and 40-foot buses in our current fleet.
Q: What will be the environmental impact of switching to all-electric buses?
A: Quite simply, there will be zero emissions from these vehicles.
Our Panther Express fleet, which is largely on the road from 7 a.m. to, in some cases, 2 a.m., travels over 3,600 miles a day on Atlanta’s streets. Some single buses travel more than 360 miles daily. All that driving means we burn an average of 600 gallons of diesel fuel every weekday.
When our fleet goes fully electric, we’ll no longer be putting the emissions from that much fuel into the air. The new buses will go 300 miles on a charge, which will mean less harm to the atmosphere, a cleaner, quieter ride for our passengers and an overall better experience.
Q: What’s next in the process, and what are we doing to get ready for the switch?
A: We’re beginning the planning phase for a new bus depot with charging stations for the new fleet, which likely be on a portion of property Georgia State already owns in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood.
And we’re reviewing the different models of all-electric buses currently available to assess which configuration will best fit the needs of our community of riders. We’ll likely be looking at 35-foot vehicles that seat 30 passengers, similar in size and capacity to the buses in our current fleet.
Our Panther Express buses see 650,000 passengers in a typical fall, and cover a portion of downtown Atlanta 11 miles from north to south, with 14 stops at key locations integral to our campus life. Panther Express is an important part of our identity, and plays a key role in the student experience. This next generation of buses will do so while helping to protect the environment and the health of our campus community.
Watch the video below for more on the electric buses and our sustainability efforts from Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer L. Jared Abramson and Sustainability Initiatives Manager Jennifer Wilson. Interview by Jordan Ferguson (MBA '25).