APS Shifts Electric Bus Projects Into High Gear

Bears in Yosemite National Park may be breathing a lot easier, thanks to a Ventura County company.

APS Systems of Oxnard recently unveiled a 35-foot, 35-passenger electric bus that is being used to shuttle visitors in and out of the Yosemite Valley.

The bus began operation just a week after APS introduced a similar electric bus, which is being used by the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District.

“Any time you put a zero-emission bus into service, you are reducing about five tons of soot a year,” said Uzi Cantoni, vice president of APS. “One bus is like 20 cars. It’s incredible the amount of reduction in pollution, when you have all these people in a bus instead of in their cars.”

APS converts buses and shuttles that operate on traditional petroleum-based fuel to vehicles powered by battery or by a combination of battery and alternative fuels, such as natural gas or propane.

The company began operation in 1983, and until 1991 specialized strictly in the design and manufacture of ground support systems for the Department of Defense and the aerospace industry. Ground support included fuel-testing equipment, a test for air leaks in airplane cabins, and high-tech portable air conditioners for use in planes while on the ground.

APS didn’t begin building electric buses until 1991. Now, said Cantoni, the company splits its work between aerospace ground support and the buses.

“We found similarities in manufacturing for the Defense Department and for the electric vehicles,” said Cantoni. “There were similarities in propulsion, in design, in electronics, and we expanded on it.”

Cantoni said his company’s current projects include one bus for the city of Lompoc and four buses for the city of Burbank. The company’s existing buses include two additional shuttles operating in Santa Barbara, two buses in Hawaii, three troop transport buses at Vandenberg Air Force Base and a bus in Pittsburgh, Pa.

APS builds its own line of 22-, 26-, and 30-foot buses, and also has contracted with El Dorado National Co. of Chino, the bus manufacturing division of Thor Industries in New York City. Cantoni said electric buses range in price from $170,000 to $250,000 for 22-foot vehicles, up to $400,000 for those 30 feet and longer.