The largest electric school bus fleet in the US just launched in Maryland | Hacker News Reader

The largest electric school bus fleet in the US just launched in Maryland

electrek.co

17 pointsmfiguiere6 comments

> Superintendent Dr. Monifa B. McKnight said at yesterday’s launch that when procurement of the 326 electric buses is complete, “We are going to be saving upwards of 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel per day, and immediately, this is going to cut costs by 50%.”

It would help if they include some information about the upfront costs of electrification. For example, How much does the charging infrastructure cost?

My colleagues put out an electric school bus market study and buyer's guide [0]. There are some examples of charging infrastructure costs on page 14 - looks like the high powered DCFC could range from ~$5k to ~$90k total. This isn't helpful for this Maryland instance, but you can see page 7 for an annotated map of where electric school buses are in the US right now, which includes Montgomery County, Maryland.

[0] https://www.wri.org/research/electric-school-bus-us-market-s...

Diesel mechanics are a dime a dozen and the tools/equipment are plentiful so I'm curious how transitioning to an all-electric fleet affects their maintenance and repair budgets as well.

On the flip side electric vehicles tend to require lower maintenance.

Electric motors are an even simpler technology with the only real complications arising in the battery tech, which likely wouldn’t be repairable on site anyways and would require replacements.

Hopefully the district has proper warranties and battery replacement timelines with their contractor.

Although it would be nice to save money too, I don't think that should be the main focus here. The main impetus for this project should be the well documented effects diesel exhaust has on the health of school age children.

The local school busing companies here don't yet use electric, but every one I see is running on natural gas and have been for many years.

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