The Race To Electrify America’s School Buses

The electric vehicle revolution is making its way to a new segment, school buses. In the U.S., 26 million children take 480,000 buses to and from school every day. Converting that fleet to zero emission vehicles could have a big impact. Driving the change are companies ranging from traditional school bus manufacturers, Blue Bird and Thomas Built, to electric vehicle manufacturers, Lion Electric and GreenPower Motor Company.

Chapters:
2:08 - Ch. 1 Electrifying buses
5:06 - Ch. 2 Early adopters
7:21 - Ch. 3 Companies
10:37 - Ch. 4 Challenges

Produced by: Andrew Evers
Supervising producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Additional Camera: Magdalena Petrova, Sam Rega
Narration: Magdalena Petrova
Graphics by: Jason Reginato

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The Race To Electrify America’s School Buses

[sambishop]

Even better than electric school busses is building our communities so that kids can walk or bike to school. It's not always possible, especially in existing neighborhoods, but it should be the default in new communities.

I live in such a community, and it's great. Our children are more independent and active. And yes, we live in a place known for snow. But kids are tough if you give them the opportunity to be.

We still have a few busses though, and I'd be happy if they were electric.

[baronvonjo]

I think school busses are the perfect way to being electrification to areas. They aren't doing insanely long trips overall but probably could make a few capable of such because the busses are just so long and can have large batteries.
And it might help bring infrastructure to areas. The vast majority of the US has absolutely no infrastructure.
I have lots of concerns about EVs being able to be for mainstream buyers so many issues with it. However this seems to be a decent idea.

[zeph_os]

I am very excited to see electrification in larger scale vehicle applications, but one point of anxiety I still have is the uncertainty of manufacturers making their vehicles repairable by anyone besides them. Tesla already makes me nervous with their withdrawal of service manuals and being very touchy about specific diagnostics, but without proper oversight, it's not a stretch to imagine the companies trying to hold school districts accountable for huge repair bills on problems they could otherwise easily solve

[caitlinweiss]

As a previous kid with asthma, I hated the bus because it often affected my lungs. The kids are gonna appreciate this so much.

[mannyechaluce]

EVs are perfect for public transport, the distances are set and they are not dependent on public charging.

[cad]

I think their also making Diesel Buses look bad btw. Like their examples of the Diesel buses of putting out lots of smokes and fumes isn't 100% true. Newer school buses with Diesel engines you can't smell the fumes at all. It's not like theses engines don't become efficient overtime. Just be informed that Diesel engine progress in efficiency over time just like regular car engines. Detroit Diesel made a 4-cylinder engine called the DD5 for buses and trucks. theses engines make the ride quiet especially on school buses. Also, you have the Cummins 6.7 ISB Engines that has been becoming more better overtime as years continues. You guys can't 100% say diesel engines are terrible, bad, and should be gone because guess what runs the engines? Semi-Trucks do, and they defiantly need them for milage and pulling loads around the states. The new Semi Trucks run cleaner btw with the new engines they had made. I don't think Eletric engines are bad for us or anything, I think it's a good thing. They have many benefits like being cheaper to recharge and since Deisel gas prices are very high still, they have their huge advantage there. But people need to remember that not ALL diesel engines are bad like they say because diesel engines are getting better at being efficient here just like gasoline car engines are getting better.

[mnd]

Since school buses got massive roof and sitting idle most of the time..the manufacturers can try to install solar panels that would self charge the bus or get some additional range ..it would reduce the load on the grid ...

[JogBird]

great, but, now fix the driver shortage

[easyrider]

97%+ of school buses would be way better and cheaper in the long run. There are a very small number of special exceptions, but just keep a few of the old diesels around for that and you are good.

Replacing the remaining diesels with hybrid solutions would work as well, but you lose almost all the real savings to maintenance cost as they get older(5-10 years old)

[ExpeditionNomadicAdventures]

Electrification of a school bus is a no-brainer, but seat belts and air conditioning would be ultimate upgrades for the health and safety of children riding school buses.

[vijayrangarajanramakrishna]

Very good initiative by US administration in the interest of cleaner and greener environment for future generations!!👏👍

[foreverinteriors]

Given the shape of the average school bus - good, I'm not sure why new buses are being bought when conversion kits would be a simpler and more economical strategy

[ytb]

What they should really electrify first are those grocery transport trucks. They have fixed determined routes between the warehouse and the grocery stores

[JohnS-erjh]

If you do not live in California, but you are buying a variety of different items shipped from California, you will be helping pay for those school buses (and other 'green' items as well). The State of California now charges an extra 'environmental' tax on items shipped from that state to customers located outside of California. This is an addition to your own state sales tax (if you have it). Once I noticed this extra fee, I stopped buying anything from California (I am already paying 7% Sales tax on purchases to my own state). Enough is a Enough.

[Wolf]

This is fine for school districts in wealthier urban settings but it will take a loooong time for the price to come down enough for smaller rural schools to afford these. School budgets have been on the decline across the board and you heard that one lady say that her affluent school district would need a rather large budget increase going forward. These are not yet practical at all.

Not only the price, but rural areas tend to have much longer routes and the battery life becomes a serious limiting factor especially when considering the sports teams of these schools that often times must travel many hundreds of miles away.

Furthermore, lack of infrastructure and trained mechanics to keep this type of fleet operational make these busses a pipe dream in most places for decades to come.
Great idea though. Let’s keep moving forward on this.

[daveizdebski]

Bruh hearing the diesel school bus around the corner was so awesome bc you knew the trip was starting and you'd be leaving school in just a moment 😂

[empirestate]

Pretty much all commercial vehicles should be electrified (especially in logistics). They don't travel particularly long distances but make frequent stops and require a lot of torque because they carry heavy loads. School buses, construction equipment, delivery vans, garbage trucks, and similar commercial vehicles can all run brilliantly on battery power. Would also do a lot to reduce noise and air pollution, and I would imagine maintenance would be a lot cheaper as well.

[kevinmapes]

We have electric Thomas buses in our fleet. They cost 3X more than a Cummins, only have a range of less than 120 miles, power cost to charge exceeds diesel costs and we have had nothing but trouble with them. I don't recommend them to any district. We made a huge mistake.

[FinancialShinanigan]

Happy to see more electric NJ Transit buses during my NYC commute!

[CLMDADE]

Can't even afford books and others supplies, but buses are the priority.