The City of Winnipeg touted the benefits Thursday of eco-friendly buses that will run under a pilot project from the airport through the city.

“(The) City of Winnipeg is proud to add eco-friendly buses,” said Mayor Brian Bowman.

The electric buses will run daily on 40 km route from Winnipeg’s airport through the city centre to East Kildonan and back to the airport.

"This fleet, I think, will eventually join the system of rapid transit,” said Mayor Bowman.

Dave Wardrop, director Winnipeg Transit, said the pilot project's electric buses will also cut maintenance for labour-intensive parts, such as transmissions, as these buses do not have them.

Some of the batteries are in the places the engine and transmission would be, while for others they are on the roof of the bus.

Manitoba Hydro also spoke about the cost savings.

"Each electric bus uses $15 of electricity for every 100 km it drives," said Scott Thomson, CEO of Manitoba Hydro.

Each bus can seat 38 people sitting, and up to 60 if they're standing up.

The plan is to charge each bus each time it arrives at the airport. It takes 30 seconds to connect to the charging station there.

Buses charge in 10 minutes or less but, if running behind schedule, can partly charge or run the route twice without charging.

Buses do have diesel heaters which help with battery functioning in cold weather.

The buses begin on the route Nov. 28.

- with a report from Alesia Fieldberg