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Tech draws region’s first electric shuttle bus to campus
Tech faculty and students are pictured with community leaders at the ribbon cutting
for the region’s first electric shuttle vehicle. Participants' names are listed below.
The first fully electric shuttle vehicle outside of an urban center in Tennessee has
landed on the campus of Tennessee Tech University, thanks to a team of faculty and
graduate students led by Pingen Chen, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering
at Tech.
The shuttle’s unveiling is the culmination of a three-year project between Tech and
the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency (UCHRA), which owns the vehicle, with support
from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and the U.S. Department of
Transportation’s Vehicle Technologies Office.
UCHRA and Tech plan to use the electric shuttle for a variety of uses, including providing
on-campus transportation for Tech students, faculty and guests over the coming weeks
before eventually transitioning the vehicle for use throughout Cookeville.
Chen says that, at times, supply chain issues and other delays associated with the
COVID-19 pandemic threatened the project’s completion, but the university and its
partners persisted.
“We are proud to have the very first electric shuttle bus anywhere outside of a major
Tennessee city. Working with UCHRA, we fought through a lot of challenges and, in
the end, showed our persistence and resiliency in making it happen,” said Chen.
Chen and UCHRA say that, in addition to being more environmentally friendly, riders
can expect a quieter travel experience on the electric shuttle bus compared to gas-powered
vehicles. The electric shuttle is also projected to have a lower total cost of ownership,
which includes not only the up-front purchase cost but also operational and maintenance
costs.
A dedicated advocate for sustainability on campus, Chen and his students already helped
procure roughly a dozen electric and hybrid cars for the university as part of a free
two-week test drive program and outreach effort serving economically distressed regions
of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio through Tech’s Rural Reimagined
initiative.
Both Tech and UCHRA aim to continue bringing more electric vehicles to the region.
“Thanks to Dr. Chen’s consistent approach, we made this work. We have finally seen
this project come to fruition and I am so excited,” said Holly Montooth, UCHRA transportation
director, in remarks at a recent ribbon cutting for the vehicle. “We don’t plan to
stop here. We want to continue. I'm looking forward to seeing our partnerships grow
and they're only going to continue to do so thanks to the commitment everyone here
has to not only becoming better stewards of our environment, but also making sure
that we are being as efficient as possible.”
TDOT explained that it will use data on this shuttle to inform its electric vehicle
efforts in other areas of the state.
“This project is going to collect data and information that we will be able to share
with rural transit agencies that serve the rest of Tennessee,” said Kaitlyn McClanahan,
transit manager for TDOT. “Strategic implementation of rural electric vehicles is
an area where Tennessee can lead. The Upper Cumberland region debuting this technology
is a big step forward.”
The shuttle was outfitted by the California-based Phoenix Motorcars and will be kept
outside Foundation Hall, the site of one of two electric vehicle charging stations
on campus.
This is the latest in a series of projects led by Tech faculty and students promoting
clean energy solutions. In recent weeks, Tech was awarded a grant from NASA for research on zero-emission commercial aircraft, as well as a separate grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for research on repurposing coal and coal waste to develop advanced conductors.
(Photo: From left: Mark Farley, UCHRA executive director, Lizzy Gaviria, grants analyst for
TDEC Office of Energy Programs, Kaitlyn McClanahan, transit manager for TDOT, Holly
Montooth, UCHRA transportation director, Pingen Chen, associate professor of mechanical
engineering at Tennessee Tech, Riley Sparks, UCHRA fleet operations manager, Jason
Carlin, UCHRA fleet operations mechanic, Carl Pinkert, interim vice president for
research at Tennessee Tech, Maxavier Lamantia, graduate student research assistant
at Tennessee Tech, and Cody Innis, graduate student research assistant at Tennessee
Tech).
