Two new electric school buses to be added to LTUSD fleet

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Does this bus look any different than your usual school bus? Well it is. The little turquoise bird above the door with the electric cord tells all. It is an all electric bus!

Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) received a grant earlier this year to purchase two electric school buses. Tuesday was the first test drive of the production vehicle and we expect a few more test drives this winter If all goes well LTUSD expects to have the two buses in service by next school year.

Not surprisingly, there have been some questions about whether electric buses can manage our mountainous terrain and winter storms. While fortunately the weather was too beautiful Tuesday to test how the bus handles snow and ice, they did take the bus up a steep hill to Cal Base lodge and the driver commented on the powerful engines ability to take on the hill. The company explained how the electric buses can be even more powerful than traditional diesel up hill because at these speeds an electric vehicle provides more torque than diesel (almost double), and it does not have a transmission shifting through gears. And not only does it have good power going up hill, but it also recharges the battery while going down hill.

Pollock Pines is also purchasing electric buses, and they test drove the same bus earlier in the day. Their school district had originally planned to use the bus on their flat routes only, but after experiencing the bus's performance on the hills today, they are now considering whether or not the electric buses should in fact be the go-to buses for their hilly routes that require power and torque.

These electric buses can go up to 120 miles on one charge, which should easily cover a day's worth of bus routes. The advantages -- besides being better for the environment -- are that they can save over 80 percent on fuel costs and the maintenance savings are high too. They are also incredibly quiet and with zero local emissions, they are healthier for our school kids and bus drivers.

The buses come with a pretty high price tag, ~$400k, but there are multiple grant opportunities from county, state and federal agencies. LTUSD was successful on the first two grants, has applied to three agencies to replace up to 16 existing buses with electric models, but the competition is fierce. An application to the county Air Quality Management District yielded funding for two buses, but eight were applied for. LTUSD was wait-listed on another rural school district grant due to the massive number of entries. The hope is to purchase the first two buses with grant monies and pilot them as route buses in the district, and to prove their effectiveness for route length, terrain and weather.

LTUSD Renewable Energy and Sustainability Committee ranked the goal of greening the LTUSD vehicle fleet pretty high on the priority list, with a specific and ambitious goal of 50 percent clean energy vehicles by 2021.

Many kudos to LTUSD for taking this important step forward!