Ebus Shuttle Establishes an All-Electric Range Record; Carpinteria, Calif., Logs Over 24,000 Annual Electric Bus Miles.

Business Editors

CARPINTERIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 2001

Today, the city of Carpinteria, Calif., celebrated the one-year anniversary of their all-electric shuttle bus service.

The shuttle service operates 29 days per month and logs approximately 80 revenue miles per day. During this first year of operation, each all-electric shuttle vehicle, manufactured by Ebus, Inc. of Downey, Calif., has logged over 24,000 miles.

"We believe that 24,000 all-electric miles is the longest, all-electric range that any transit property has been able attain from a single vehicle in one year, without the use of battery swapping," said Gary Gleason, the General Manager of the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District and operator of the Carpinteria fleet. "The community of Carpinteria warmly embraced these electric shuttles from the first day they went into service and our ridership has continued to be very high."

The all-electric shuttle from Ebus, Inc., features a 288 Volt, 280 Ahr pack of Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) batteries. "The NiCd batteries have provided us with better range, better life, better reliability, and better cost performance than other battery chemistries we have used in the past," said William G. Webster, Jr., President of Ebus. "We have been very pleased with the results and have incorporated these batteries into all of our new vehicles." Saft Corporation of Valdosta, Ga., manufactures the NiCd batteries for Ebus.

With the exception of scheduled maintenance, the Ebus vehicles have provided uninterrupted service to the Carpinteria community from the first day of delivery. "We were pleased to discover that these new shuttle buses from Ebus have had fewer manufacturing defects or warranty claims than our traditional diesel buses and have proven to be very reliable," said Ralph Brannan, Director of Maintenance for Santa Barbara MTD. Since the launch of the Carpinteria service, Santa Barbara MTD has added eight additional Ebus vehicles to their fleet.

About Ebus, Inc.

Ebus is an electric-bus manufacturer headquartered in Downey, Calif. Current production models include 22-foot transit buses, shuttle buses and vintage trolley replicas with all-electric or hybrid-electric propulsion systems. All classes of vehicle are completely ADA compliant with low-floor platforms and space for 22-seated passengers. Anti-lock brakes are standard equipment. A battery management and cooling system designed to facilitate fast/opportunity charging is available as an option, as well as a wide range of accessories and configurations. The Ebus Hybrid-electric vehicles feature the Capstone Microturbine and provide the cleanest power plant available. Ebus has built buses for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Georgia Power in Atlanta, and the cities of Santa Barbara and Anaheim, Calif. Digital photos and video are available upon request. For more information, visit the Ebus Website at: www.ebus.com.

Ebus, Inc. is located at 9250 Washburn Rd., Downey, Calif. 90242. 562/904-3474