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Transportation

America’s First All-Electric Transit Agency Isn’t What You Might Expect

California’s modest, semi-rural Antelope Valley is lighting the path for the rest of the country.

Driving into the future.

Driving into the future.

Photograph: iStock Editorial/Getty Images

By
Adrian Martinez

If the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the phrase “electric vehicle” is some wealthy guy driving a gleaming new Tesla, think again. Think large buses. Think not-so-wealthy. Think Antelope Valley.

The Antelope Valley is a middle- and working-class, semi-rural area northeast of Los Angeles, where the Antelope Valley Transit Authority recently became the first in the US to replace all its dirty diesel and combustion buses with electric transit vehicles.