Pegasus Specialty Vehicles announced details of a newly signed agreement with Creative Bus Sales during a media event held at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo on May 11, in Long Beach, Calif.
Pegasus will be building Type A school buses and electric shuttle and paratransit buses using the Zeus Electric Chassis Power Platform to deliver what it says will be different from the gas or diesel conversions that are popular in the market today. The ground-up design of the Zeus Z-19 cab-chassis is purpose-built and optimized for bus body installation and system integration.
The deal with Creative Bus Sales enables all three companies to capture sales and win a portion of the federal and state grant money incentivizing rapid electric-bus adoption.
“We’re very excited to take on the Pegasus product line and the timing couldn’t be better,” said Jason Hohalok, sales manager for California, Creative Bus Sales. “Our customers have been looking for new and better solutions, and the Pegasus Type A school buses and electric shuttle and paratransit bus bodies on the Zeus Electric Chassis provides us with exactly that.”
A Pegasus Bus on a Zeus Z-19 Power Platform features all-wheel-drive, independent suspension and a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of up to 19,500 pounds. Its electric motors generate a continuous rated 290 horsepower and 2,040 foot pounds of torque, enabling it to operate in inclement weather, on challenging topographies and allowing it to transport a payload of up to 8,000 pounds within a standard range of 150 miles.
The Zeus chassis offers a purpose-built platform for the Pegasus bus body. In addition to incorporating an all-electric drive train, the modular battery concept inherent in the Zeus design offers the flexibility needed to fully integrate powering climate systems and power-entry lifts with the chassis systems. The sturdier build of the Zeus frame rail system, and the resulting market-leading payload, will accommodate larger-sized buses on the same platform.
"From our first conversation I knew that I wanted to put a bus body on the Zeus chassis. Working with Zeus and having a chassis purpose-built to suit our needs is unheard of. Because it’s not a conversion, the Zeus platform is designed to meet the unique requirements of an all-electric design,” said Brian Barrington, president, Pegasus Specialty Vehicles. “Being in and around the industry and having a chassis supplier ask us what we want, then building the chassis to meet that, is exactly what we want to do with our buses for our customers.”
The agreement with Creative Bus Sales provides a national dealership base for Pegasus and allows the company to leverage its extensive service network and long-established expertise in the bus market. Creative Bus Sales is an HVIP-registered dealer for customers in California. Zeus Electric Chassis has been awarded an Executive Order (EO) from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for its model year 2022 Z-19 and Z-22 all-electric work trucks.
