Suburban school districts slowly rolling out electric school buses
Suburban school districts have a long road ahead of them before school bus fleets are completely electric.
Thanks to state and federal grants and an incentive from a utility, however, districts slowly are adopting electric school buses. But most fleets still rely heavily on traditional fossil fuels.
Susan Mudd, senior policy advocate for the Environmental Law & Policy Center, said Illinois districts and transportation companies have used grants and incentives to purchase about 700 electric school buses.
Among those with electric vehicles: River Trails District 26 in Mount Prospect, which uses one electric vehicle; Naperville Unit District 203, which owns four electric buses; and Huntley Community Unit District 158, which has four electric buses and is looking to add six more in the next year or so, Chief Financial Officer Mark Altmayer said.
Other districts are in the process of adding them to their fleets.
Palatine Township Elementary District 15 recently committed to leasing five electric buses over 12 years from Massachusetts-based Highland Electric Fleets.
Still, this is a long way from a complete conversion.
Altmayer said roughly 4% of District 158’s fleet is electric. The same goes for District 203.
“Most of the manufacturing of school buses is still diesel, so the manufacturers have had to do some retooling of factories,” said Mudd, of the Environmental Law & Policy Center.
Electric buses offer environmental benefits, but there are other reasons driving the push to convert.
For one, diesel fumes can be harmful to children and drivers. Though expensive to buy, electric buses are cheaper to maintain. And advocates say they offer other advantages, as well.
“They’re quiet and drivers and students notice that kids aren’t screaming to be heard on their entire ride to and from school, which makes it calmer for them. They get to school ready to learn,” Mudd said. “Drivers certainly don’t have the distractions. The other thing that drivers like is the pickup on them.”
One factor slowing the conversion locally is the uncertainty surrounding Lion Electric, which recently suspended operations at its facility near Joliet, laying off hundreds of workers. District 203 was planning to add five more of their buses.
“Those buses are also from Lion, and that is in flux right now,” said Cindy La Born, District 203’s director of transportation. “We’re working through that process.”
But cost remains the largest hurdle.
Altmayer said the approximate cost of an electric bus is $350,000. A traditional diesel-powered school bus costs between $120,000 and $145,000, transportation officials said.
“Without the grant support, the cost is still prohibitive,” said former District 158 Superintendent Scott Rowe, now superintendent of Northwest Suburban High School District 214.
District 15 school board President Lisa Szczupaj said grant funding was a factor in their decision to lease electric buses.
“We can dip our toes in the water, testing the electric bus concept and seeing if it will work,” she said.
The state of Illinois has helped fuel electric school bus adoption by offering funds from the state’s share of a multibillion-dollar settlement with Volkswagen, which was accused of using “defeat devices” in its vehicles to cheat emissions tests and deceive customers in advertising its “clean diesel” vehicles.
VW funding amounting to more than $288,000 paid for the electric bus used by River Trails District 26, which serves portions of Mount Prospect, Des Plaines and Prospect Heights. That covered roughly 75% of the cost. It also helped cover the cost of District 158’s buses.
District 15 plans to spend $1.2 million in operating costs for its five buses. In addition, its provider, Highland, will receive $2.2 million in rebates to cover some up-front costs.
Other funding sources include the U.S. EPA’s Clean School Bus Program, ComEd’s Selected Customer Make-Ready Incentive and tax credits through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Last year, ComEd made available nearly $90 million in rebates as part of a state-mandated program made possible by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which calls for adding 1 million electric vehicles to the roads by 2030.
ComEd spokesperson Lauren Huffman said District 15 participated in the company’s new Fleet Electrification Assessment program, which helps public sector customers, including school districts, plan the transition to an electric fleet.
Highland also will service the new electric vehicles for District 15, Szczupaj said.
“Electric buses work differently,” she said. “The maintenance on them is different. It also doesn’t make a lot of financial sense to bring in full-time electric fleet expertise for five buses when the majority of our fleet continues to be diesel and gas.”
Mudd is hopeful fleet conversions will pick up steam.
“We think that this will be the norm in the future, but it’s definitely going to take some time,” she said. “It’s only a matter of how long it takes.”