I’d love for manufacturers to explain why it can cost 80-100 thousand less to buy a brand new diesel bus and repower it to become electric than it does to buy a new electric school bus in the first place. Why?
Only 2.4% of U.S. school districts are operating or have yet ordered their first ESB. Would busy school bus fleets and school boards and superintendents be wasting their time, this early on, by learning about V2G?
While children are famously safe from injury and death in school buses, their health is directly harmed by diesel exhaust.
I confess I have bought into lots of myths in my lifetime. For example, in 2008 as a transportation options geek I thought that replacing car trips with bike and bus trips was the most powerful way to reduce emissions (I was unaware of electric back then).
It’s easy to focus on electric school buses (ESBs). They’re big, photogenic, courteously quiet, and emit no bad smells. They command the floor space of the shows we go to like kings and queens.
The first round of the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program Funding is complete, and the second round is coming up soon in February/March 2023. This funding can exclude large inner-city schools based on current policy.