How does the school bus electrification movement look for 2025? There’s a ton of good news afoot — and we’re going to share it with you.
If you’re trying to convince your school district or private school to consider replacing your old diesel buses or vans with electric school buses, 2025 might just be your year.
Several reasons stand out — and we’re bringing the receipts.
The Electric School Bus Market Continues to Soar
As the Electric School Bus Initiative’s buyer’s guide points out, there’s momentum building among the nation’s schools driving electric school bus adoption. By June 2024, 1,514 school districts and private school transportation providers had already ordered or taken delivery of 12,167 electric school buses.
Those buses transport nearly 200,000 students, as a FuSE article reports. Even better, the number of buses has increased by a factor of 6. The trend shows no sign of stopping.
The momentum is nationwide, with the total number of electric buses spread across 49 states. With 26 models available, including Type A, Type C, and Type D, in both repowered (formerly diesel) and new all-electric designs, schools have a broad range of buses to choose from.
Today’s electric school buses can travel anywhere from 100 to 300 miles on a single charge. For most school systems, except those in remote locations, such a range is adequate for drivers to cover their routes.
It’s no surprise, then, that some of the nation’s most densely populated states — California, Illinois, New York, Maryland, and Florida — lead electric school bus adoption. As EV battery technology improves, that range should improve, enabling more sparsely populated rural communities to join the electric school bus revolution.
Electric Buses Build Advantage After Advantage for America’s Schools
While government funding, such as the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program, certainly helps a school’s bus fleet transition to an electric one, many more advantages directly benefit both the school district and its students.
Significant Fuel Savings
As the FuSE piece cited earlier points out, California’s Orange Unified School District has reported huge savings on the 15 electric school buses they have integrated into their fleet. These buses only cost 22 cents per mile, while their remaining diesel buses cost more than a dollar per mile.
That’s at least a 78% decrease. It’s no wonder that the district plans to replace 31 buses out of its current diesel fleet with electric models.
Not only did they save on fuel costs, but the district’s original 15 electric buses have also “proven reliable across various terrains and weather conditions.” For this school district, electric buses have proven to be a win-win.
But that one school district isn’t an outlier. As a Climate Central report shows, a single electric school bus will save its district around $100,000 in maintenance and fuel costs over its lifetime. And, if you add in the environmental and health benefits to its community, that one school bus can contribute an additional $84,200 in savings to the community.
Better Student Health and Academic Performance
As the Climate Central report referenced above shows, 90% of America’s school bus fleets still use diesel fuel. Unfortunately, diesel exhaust has proven to harm growing children’s respiratory and cardiovascular health.
As for the communities these buses roll through, the news is equally grim. The exhaust these school buses produce spews more than 40 “toxic air contaminants as well as fine particulate pollution…and nitrogen oxides that form ground-level ozone,” as the report points out.
Diesel exhaust is a carcinogen. It also strains cardiovascular and respiratory health. Benzene, one of the components of the fumes, is a known cancer-producing substance. Other components of diesel exhaust are toxic to human genes, driving cellular mutation, as an Environment & Human Health, Inc. paper points out.
Even worse, the study shows, “there is no known safe level of exposure to diesel exhaust for children” since a child’s airway is smaller in diameter than that of an adult — and is still developing.
The data on diesel exhaust and cancer is shocking. As a Canadian Medical Association Journal paper shows, students riding on buses receive four times the exhaust exposure than people riding in a vehicle ahead of the bus.
Riding on the bus for 1 to 2 hours every day, 180 days per year over a 10-year span will likely result in 23 to 46 extra deaths for every 1 million students. The next time you see a diesel school bus cruising around your community’s streets, know that cancer is rolling down the road with it.
It’s worse inside the buses than on the streets. Studies show that a phenomenon called “self-pollution” causes an elevated level of these pollutants in the bus cabin compared to the outside environment.
Worse yet, students with disabilities — already more vulnerable to health issues — are more likely to ride diesel buses, adding even more risk to their daily rides, as the Climate Central report found. Additionally, a Healthy People 2030 literature review reports that lower-income students, who are more likely to ride diesel buses, are also “at increased risk for mental illness, chronic disease, higher mortality, and lower life expectancy.”
With all these environmental risks to the nation’s most vulnerable students, it’s no surprise that these fine particulates cause the most deaths from environmental exposures in the entire US. That can change if school districts begin transitioning to electric bus fleets.
Other studies show that students who have frequent exposure to air pollutants while riding diesel school buses have a higher risk of respiratory diseases, such as asthma and pneumonia. These illnesses cause these students to miss more school.
One could reasonably conclude that those higher rates of absence would result in poorer academic records compared to their non-bus-riding peers. That conclusion bears out in the data.
The researchers in these studies also discovered that students in school districts that retrofitted buses to run on electricity instead of diesel fuel experienced a “significant increase in respiratory health.” Moreover, students in those districts also saw a “dramatic” rise in their test scores, especially in English classes.
Yet another study points out that this increase in test scores doesn’t limit itself to English. Students who rode retrofitted buses also performed better in standardized tests overall.
Furthermore, a study published in Nature extrapolated similar results linking diesel exhaust to missed school days to the entire nation. It concluded — with a 95% confidence interval — that replacing older diesel buses with more eco-friendly vehicles would increase student attendance nationwide by 1.3 million days.
Community Engagement and Education Around Clean Energy
Think rural schools haven’t any use for electric school buses? Tim Farquer, the superintendent of the Williamsfield School District, a rural district in Illinois, would beg to differ. Under his leadership, the district’s student body drove the initiative to integrate electric school buses into its fleet.
In 2016, Williamsfield and surrounding areas experienced frequent power outages during the brutal central Illinois winters. After one of those events, students drew up a blueprint for a microgrid that could keep the schools running during outages, thanks to V2G technology. After presenting their design at the Adjustable Block Program Lottery, the superintendent and two of the school’s STEM students received word that the program had selected their design for funding.
Fast forward to 2023, when the students’ proposal came to life. Eight of the district’s nine school buses are now electric, providing its 300 students with a healthier environment while making the local grid more resilient. More importantly, the initiative engaged students in high-demand skill training through their passion for making their community a better place to live.
Feed Back Power to the Local Grid for Added Revenue
As the Climate Central report we referenced earlier found, the energy in electric school buses’ batteries can feed power back into the local grid through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging to serve as a backup during outages. During vacation or holiday breaks, those batteries can earn revenue for the school by selling electricity back to their local utility using the same technology, as a prudent Massachusetts school discovered.
That school earned $23,500 in passive income over two summer breaks by supplying its local grid with 10.78 MWh of electricity. Imagine adding that kind of cash to the funds the PTA raises from their bake sales!
Even worn-out batteries can benefit your school district’s bottom line. As a recent AZO Materials post indicates, your school district can harness your spent batteries’ remaining energy, about 70%–80% of their original capacity, to power your school’s energy needs or serve as a backup power source during outages.
Boost District Revenue with the IRS’s Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit
As a tax-exempt organization, your school district can’t take a deduction on taxes, it doesn’t even have to pay. So, you might wonder how the IRS’s Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit could possibly benefit your school.
But there’s a provision in the law that allows schools and other non-profit organizations to receive a direct payment instead of a tax credit.
It’s not often that the IRS gives out money — but school districts that buy electric vans or smaller fleet vehicles can earn $7,500 for each vehicle under 14,000 lbs. Even better, when you buy a full-sized bus over 14,000 lbs, your district can receive up to $40,000.
Join Schools Across the Nation as Their Bus Fleets Go Electric
School districts from all over the United States are discovering the benefits of electric school buses to transport students to and from school. Join your fellow school administrators and school board members at the next EV Charging Summit event.
Be sure to attend one of our small-group Shop Talks, where you’ll hear from successful school administrators who have experienced success in implementing an electric school bus program in their respective districts.
Before you come, though, gin up some enthusiasm among your school board members — and invite them along for the ride. Nothing will convince them more than seeing other schools’ successes. Register yourself and your team today for our next event!
FreePik Credits: Image 1,
