The Electric Bus Gamble: Greensboro’s High-Stakes Ride into the Future

A Greensboro Transit Authority electric bus turns onto East Washington Street. Greensboro was the first community in North Carolina to put battery-powered, zero-emission buses in regular, daily route service.

The morning mist hung low over the Greensboro Transit Authority depot, where a line of gleaming electric buses stood like sentinels of progress. Tyler Meyer walked between them, hope and calculation in his eyes. Asheville’s cautionary tale echoed in his mind—five electric buses now idle, a testament to ambition gone wrong. Greensboro was determined to write a different story, taking it slow with three buses now and plans for more. But as the first electric bus rolled out, the city held its breath. Would they succeed where others had stumbled, or become another cautionary tale of municipal overreach?