KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo council has approved the purchase of four hybrid buses at a cost of $3.6 million.

The Tuesday meeting decision is expected to help start the shift over for their entire fleet of buses.

When asked by one councillor why they aren't purchasing completely electric buses, staff responded by saying that's in the works for the future once the new Northfield transit terminal is complete.

"Until then, we don't have the facilities currently to charge them," said Thomas Schmidt with the region. "We still need to do work on specifically what routes they would make the most sense on."

The new $104 million Northfield terminal is set to be completed in spring 2022.