The yellow buses lined up after school in the Ralls County School District look nearly identical. Except two of them aren’t like the others: they run on batteries.
“It’s not as loud as the other ones,” said Ian Joiner, a ninth grader who climbs on board one of the buses, driven by his dad, Eric Joiner.
The rural school district in northeastern Missouri is one of the first in the state to receive electric buses from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. The federal initiative has sent at least one electric bus to nearly every U.S. state with thousands more on the way. So far, the federal government has invested $1.8 billion in the program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is promising to replace more than 5,000 buses.
As more and more school districts try out this new technology, reviews are coming in.
“Well, I’m in love with the buses so far,” said John Wiles, transportation director at Shawnee Public Schools, on the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s tribal lands in Shawnee, Okla.
“Of course they’ve had their little nicks and problems. I think any bus that we get brand new has glitches from the factory … but once those were repaired, the buses have been doing excellent.”
Wiles had been thinking about the electric transition for a few years and even attended an electric bus conference in Indianapolis last summer. His district has two electric buses so far and should receive two more in the next month.
“It doesn’t bother me to be at the beginning of something new and innovative,” Wiles said.
One of the biggest differences he’s noticed is how quiet the buses are — he’s wondering if that might lead to fewer student behavior issues on routes. Wiles said he was also looking for ways to cut back on air quality issues for student health.
The lower greenhouse gas emissions from the electric buses also could help slow climate change. It takes about a third the amount of carbon dioxide to make and run the electric buses compared to their fossil fuel counterparts, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. That can vary with the makeup of local electricity generation.
While there are a lot of benefits, there’s one big downside — the price tag.
A new electric school bus can cost around $375,000, which is about three to four times more than a new diesel bus. Districts also have to install expensive charging infrastructure, which is covered by the grants but can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000.
Yet over their lifetime, the buses are expected to generate savings. Electricity is less expensive per mile compared to diesel. Maintenance is also cheaper, in part because the buses don’t need oil changes and regenerative braking cuts down on brake changes. But those savings don’t offset the up-front costs, at least not yet.
District officials are doing the math as they apply for the EPA grants — and many say if they had to spend district money, they wouldn’t have bought electric buses.
Through the EPA program and others, about 8,500 electric school buses have been promised or delivered to school districts across the country. That represents a big increase in recent years, but is still a small fraction of the 480,000 U.S. school bus fleet.
