Electric School Buses Ditch Diesel But Come With Their Own Challenges

“As a student at Centennial High School and a climate advocate, I care deeply about implementing climate-friendly technologies,” high school student Maya Santhanam wrote(Opens in a new window) to the Baltimore Sun earlier this year in support of an electric school bus bill(Opens in a new window).

She’s one of many students in the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) district who advocated to transition the school’s diesel fleet, which uses 17,000 gallons of fuel daily, to battery-powered buses with no tailpipe emissions.

The first of Montgomery County Public Schools’ fleet of 326 electric buses.
(Credit: mc2/Mackenzie Messer)

The bill in question—The Climate Solutions Now Act—creates an electric school bus pilot program in Maryland, among other things. It passed in March, and MCPS this week held a ribbon-cutting ceremony as it started the rollout of what will be the nation’s largest zero-emission school bus fleet with 326 electric buses to be delivered over the next five years.

America’s iconic yellow school buses are set for their biggest modernization since debuting in the first half of the 20th century. In the next few decades, the age-old tradition of choking on diesel exhaust in the bus line will be lost to history, along with rotary phones and dial-up internet.

In 20 Years, Most School Buses Will Likely Be Electric

Exploring the new electric buses at the MCPS ribbon-cutting ceremony.
(Credit: mc2/Mackenzie Messer)

“I thought we would have to go out and convince people to electrify, but people have moved on from that,” says Maggie Clancy, chief commercial officer for Levo Mobility(Opens in a new window), a company that helps schools with their electrification projects. “That’s a wonderful pivot from where we’ve been in the last few years.”

Maryland (Opens in a new window)and New York have mandated that all new buses must be electric by 2025 and 2027, respectively. Other states have set up grants to drive adoption by reducing costs, such as Colorado’s $65 million program(Opens in a new window).

Federally, the recent infrastructure bill allocated $5 billion over the next five years for the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program(Opens in a new window), which will replace gas-powered buses with electric ones. Vice President Kamala Harris was in Seattle today to announce(Opens in a new window) the distribution of the first $1 billion to school districts across the country.

“These investments are going to go everywhere that our school buses go. It’s going to be in urban communities. It’s going to be in rural communities, Tribal communities. It will be in all 50 states,” Vice President Harris said.

Schools are going to need the money; electric buses cost as much as $400,000(Opens in a new window) versus around $150,000 for diesel. To further offset costs, districts are partnering with public utilities and startups whose software connects the battery to the electrical grid. This allows them to sell back stored power for as much as $7,500 per bus per year during times of peak consumption.

2022 saw 12,000 electric school bus commitments (awarded, delivered, ordered, or in service) from schools across the country, up from just 22 in 2017.
(Credit: Electric School Bus Initiative)

Electrifying all school buses would reduce carbon emissions in the US by as much as 35%, the Electric School Bus Initiative estimates(Opens in a new window). Yet just 1% of the 500,000 school buses on the road today—the nation’s largest form of fleet transportation—are battery-powered. That will rise to 2.5% once all on-order buses are delivered.

As idealistic as clean transit for the younger generation seems, not everyone is on board. Many people we talked to agree the buses are not yet as cost-effective and high-performing as schools need them to be. At the same time, most expect more than half of America’s schools to go electric within the next 20 years as the industry evolves.

Early Feedback From Districts Is Mixed

Only early adopters have electric buses for now, largely purchased with grant money. We spoke to transportation managers in two districts, one in California and one in Massachusetts, who have had very different experiences with their EVs so far.

“Some of our elementary students call it the magic bus—they’re excited about it,” says Dana Cruikshank, transportation manager at Beverly Public Schools(Opens in a new window) in Massachusetts. “You don’t have the clanging of the diesel engine, it’s a very quiet, smooth ride that feels like you’re on a high-powered monorail. It’s just enjoyable.”

Beverly acquired their first two electric buses in 2020, and three more are coming by year’s end. The fleet also includes 10 hybrid gas/electric buses, and 33 diesel vehicles. 

Cruikshank wholeheartedly recommends electric buses to other districts, but Kelly Lambert, the transportation director at the Ramona Unified School District(Opens in a new window) outside San Diego, is still not convinced on the move to electric. Her predecessor acquired eight electric buses with grant funding, and Lambert has now inherited their daily operation alongside 25 diesel buses.

The Ramona Unified School District electric bus fleet.
(Credit: Kelly Lambert)

“It’s been an adventure, with lots of problems,” says Lambert. She’s supportive, and even uses a Tesla Powerwall at her own home, but struggles with maintenance, getting chargers to work properly, and overheating batteries that have decommissioned buses several times.

“It’s little things, too, like there’s no room to store football equipment underneath since the battery is there,” Lambert adds.

With the buses’ limited range, Ramona relies on diesel buses for longer trips, which are necessary given the school’s rural location. The models she operates are made by Blue Bird(Opens in a new window). They advertise a 120-mile range, less than half of what most passenger EVs get. Driving up the mountain the district sits on depletes the battery quickly, reducing range even further.

“Automakers need to develop a new vehicle that is designed to meet the needs of the customer,” says Amy Dobrikova, vice president of fleet management at Blink Charging(Opens in a new window). She believes redesigning electric buses rather than retrofitting former builds to run on batteries will solve these types of problems. It will also create opportunities to swap in lighter steel frames to offset the weight of the battery, extending range.

MCPS Superintendent Monifa B. McKnight
(Credit: mc2/Mackenzie Messer)

“Any new technology goes through this cycle of development and improvement, and these early adopting fleets need to provide feedback to the automakers,” Dobrikova says. “They need to say, ‘Hey, these are my issues I’m having, please improve this for the next development.'”

But there’s one thing both districts agree on: the joys of air conditioning, which electric buses have thanks to the battery cooling system. It also pumps cool air into the cabin—a welcome upgrade for schools still using decades-old vehicles. “All of our special education vehicles have air conditioning, but our big buses generally don’t,” says Cruikshank.

“We love the air conditioning, and the cameras,” says Lambert.

How Do Electric School Buses Charge?

A bus driver tries out a new MCPS electric bus.
(Credit: mc2/Mackenzie Messer)

Electric buses power up overnight at off-site parking depots with chargers. This takes the burden off the driver to find public gas stations—standard procedure for diesel bus driving.

“Feedback from drivers has been fantastic,” says Sean Highland, director of technology at Highland Fleets(Opens in a new window). “The ones who are using electric buses daily don’t want to switch back. It’s much more responsive when you press the pedal—it’s instant. It’s so much quieter, and it doesn’t reek of diesel.”

MCPS’ fleet of electric buses—which will jump from 80 to 326 over the next five years—will eventually charge across five depots. Beverly Public Schools has just one given their smaller fleet of two—soon to be five—buses.

MCPS bus charging.
(Credit: mc2/Caroline Venza and Mckenzie Messer)

A full charge takes about seven hours on a level two charger, and just 30 minutes on a level three fast charger, according to Dobrikova.

“It’s important to pay attention to the charging specs on a vehicle,” she adds. “For example, Bluebird buses can take AC and DC fast charging, but Thomasville only take DC power, which is faster but depletes the life of the battery more quickly. Schools have to get what fits their needs.”

The Nuuve app, used by Ramona schools to monitor the charge of their 8 electric buses.
(Credit: Kelly Lambert, Nuuve)

Dobrikova recommends buses charge on AC power overnight to preserve batteries and provide enough power for the subsequent day. AC, or level two, chargers are also much cheaper than DC fast chargers.

Despite Lambert’s concerns with the fleet at Ramona, one of her team’s favorite things about the buses are being able to check on their charge on the Nuuve app. Blink and others also offer applications to help fleet managers monitor charging levels.

Offsetting Costs by Selling Stored Power for Cash

To help recoup the steep bus costs, as well as increase the school’s energy independence, most electric school buses offer “vehicle to grid,” or V2G, capabilities.

Electric buses can make as much as $7,500 per year(Opens in a new window) by drawing power when energy costs are lowest, like overnight, and then selling power back to the grid during times of peak consumption.

“Every summer, we’ve been selling power back to the grid during heat waves,” says Cruikshank. “They’re $300,000 more than a diesel bus but with the grants and selling the power back to the grid, it’s affordable.”

Companies like Highland Fleets, Levo Mobility, and Nuuve help schools work with utility companies, handling the integration through the charging station on behalf of the district.

Highland Fleets CEO Duncan McIntyre spoke about V2G at the MCPS ribbon-cutting ceremony.
(Credit: mc2/Mackenzie Messer)

“Highland Fleets is our leasing partner,” says Cruikshank. “They cover maintenance, make sure we have electricity for charging, and handle selling back to the grid.”

As Sean Leach at Highland Fleets explains, buses have massive batteries that hold excess power as they sit idle during the school day. Since buses have predictable route schedules, their customers simply indicate in the app when their bus will need power and how much to hold in the battery at all times. After that, software executes mutually beneficial sales.

School buses can even use their charge to power parts of the school itself. “Rather than buses powering a whole home or school like the grid connection does, they might power a few critical circuits—like the parking lot lights or the athletic center—and that way you can de-risk things while still getting the benefits,” says William Goldsmith, head of grid services at ev.energy(Opens in a new window).

General Motors explains how customers can use their vehicle battery to power their homes and sell money to the grid.
(Credit: GM)

Several passenger cars also have bi-directional charging capability, the underlying technology required for V2G, such as the Ford F-150 Lightning EV pickup truck, 2024 GMC Sierra EV pickup truck, and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

General Motors plans to enable bi-directional charging in an increasing number of vehicles going forward so it can facilitate V2G power sales for its customers, as well as complement grid capacity to support more electric cars.

Growing Pains: Worth It in the Long Run?

If we can drive down the upfront costs to buy buses and charging depots, educate districts, and improve infrastructure for maintenance and battery recycling, electric buses would usher in a cleaner, quieter, more pleasant experience for students and drivers.

The negative health effects of diesel, like low air quality, also disproportionately affect lower-income families who are more likely to take the bus, the Electric School Bus Initiative(Opens in a new window) says.

(Credit: Inside Creative House / Getty Images)

“School buses are one of our country’s big emitters, and we need to do better,” says Dobrikova. She notes that switching from diesel to propane has also reduced school bus emissions.

Successful electrification will require lots of incremental progress from schools, governments, manufacturers, and others around the globe. And money, of course.

“It’s just a matter of educating on infrastructure and then making sure schools get the funding,” says Dobrikova. “If there was no funding, it wouldn’t happen, because honestly we’re not there yet [on bus design and costs]. But eventually, it’ll make sense.”