Here's a PGE. Wouldn't be the same for NY, of course, but their numbers say that you can only save money if you have incentives:
Some other differences possible of course. If Registration doesn't have property tax, it wouldn't be different.
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Here's a PGE. Wouldn't be the same for NY, of course, but their numbers say that you can only save money if you have incentives:
Some other differences possible of course. If Registration doesn't have property tax, it wouldn't be different.
The $0.21 vs $0.09 per mile is surprising to me. But didn’t look at the base costs of energy assumptions. Just a quick scan.
After quick scan a couple things jumped out at me:
$90,000 vs $350,000 bus cost. Does an electric bus really cost $350,000?
They seem to have $13,750 for a charger for each bus. All you would need is some level 2 charging. This amount seems excessive.
They have $1,100 per year charged maintenance. Why would each level 2 charged cost that much to maintain?
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Blue Bird's electric buses can get up to 120 miles in a single charge, depending on terrain and driving habits. With a typical Level 2 (AC) charger, Blue Bird Electric buses can charge in approximately 8 hours. With the new fast charging option, which utilizes CCS1 plug, our buses can charge in approximately 3 hours!
mspohr
Well-Known Member
From Blue Bird:
The district’s diesel buses average 42 cents per mile for fuel, while the electric bus averages 14 cents per mile in energy costs.
Electric School Buses would be good for Cities close Suburbs and Urban areas. I would be concerned about range in wintertime. When we lived in North Dakota my son's Bus ride was 45 minutes to and from School and he wasn't even the first on and last off. Some drivers take their School Buses home. Would Districts be required to provide Home Charging?
mspohr
Well-Known Member
If the norm is to take the bus home (which also happens in some districts here), then of course they'd want to do that. Would have to figure out expenses, of course, but that'd be quite straightforward. One of the good things about rural districts is that they can make some things happen quickly.
Yes, there are districts not far from me where they could have a 1 hour ride to school.
As far as range/battery goes, naturally for all-electric you'd need to take into account higher winter consumption. (There's an electric bus in Tok, AK, but their run is 35 miles each way. Cold winter day consumption to maintain the minimum 45F is 3 times summer consumption) One workaround would be using combustive auxiliary heating. A lot of school buses already have separated auxiliary heating systems that they can run separately from the engine. So you might be able to have a separate propane heating system, so that the battery capacity is just set for driving.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
The largest electric school bus fleet in the US just launched in Maryland
One of the largest school districts in the US has deployed the single largest electric school bus fleet in the country.
electrek.co
mspohr
Well-Known Member
More kids to ride in 'clean' school buses, mostly electric
Nearly 400 school districts across the country are receiving grants totaling about $1 billion to purchase 2,500 “clean” school buses under a new federal program.
apnews.com
Nearly 400 school districts spanning all 50 states and Washington, D.C., along with several tribes and U.S. territories, are receiving roughly $1 billion in grants to purchase about 2,500 “clean” school buses under a new federal program.
The Biden administration is making the grants available as part of a wider effort to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles and reduce air pollution near schools and communities.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
More kids to ride in 'clean' school buses, mostly electric
Nearly 400 school districts across the country are receiving grants totaling about $1 billion to purchase 2,500 “clean” school buses under a new federal program.
apnews.com
School districts identified as priority areas serving low-income, rural or tribal students make up 99% of the projects that were selected, the White House said. More applications are under review, and the EPA plans to select more winners to reach the full $965 million in coming weeks.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
This solar + microgrid storage depot can charge 70 electric buses
Half of Maryland’s Montgomery County electric buses will be powered at a solar and microgrid energy storage depot in Brookville.
electrek.co
Montgomery County, Maryland, is on a roll. Earlier this month, it deployed the single largest electric school bus fleet – 86 – in the US. Now 70 of the county’s electric buses will be powered at a solar-powered, microgrid energy storage depot in Brookville.
The Brookville Smart Energy Bus Depot uses an integrated system of solar, microgrid energy storage and electric charging stations that will power 70 electric buses – half of Brookville’s bus fleet – with 4.14 megawatts of charging capacity.
Transitioning the 70 buses at the depot from diesel to electric, powered by the on-site clean energy microgrid, will reduce lifetime emissions by 62%, which is equivalent to more than 160,000 tons of greenhouse gases over the next 25 years.
I know you like to be the contrarian and that's often good as a way to sanity check ones assumptions, however: Rural, extremely cold places are not really a big issue. The big damage to our economy and ecology is the massive numbers of ICE polluting our cities in temperate latitudes. If we take all of the extremely rural and extremely cold places and use ICE, it won't make a big difference.
In fact, IMHO, folks who live in cold, remote places should be championing for the cities to adopt EVs instead of selfishly(but naively) grousing that it won't help them. Transition of urban travel to EVs and renewable energy sources will reduce the demand for and thus reduce the cost of oil and fossil fuels which are so desperately need for even minimal comfort in cold, remote places.
I don't think the district would have to provide a home charger but it would certainly only be reasonable for them to provide a charger for THEIR school buses. However, that could probably be at the drivers' home or the school. I suspect the buses stay at the school during the day, after the morning pickup run and before the afternoon run back home.
I suggest, however, that the rural schools, even if most runs are an hour or less, will need a few long-range buses (that could be EV) to take kids long distances since rural schools often have to travel long distances to sporting and academic events as well as field trips. Being rural, they often rely on traveling to expose students to things that are not available in their rural communities. Again, this is not a big driver in the global ecology or economy.
