the electric bus market within the past three years, building on the success of its sister company, First Transit, in running electric buses for transit agencies. First Student currently runs about 20 elec-
tric school buses in Quebec and Chicago, and it plans to expand that number quickly across its entire North American fleet of 40,000 buses. “Buying four to five buses at a time is not
going to change the industry. We want to change the industry by buying in volume, operating in volume,” said Todd Hawkins, First Student senior vice president of main- tenance. “We’re the biggest. If we’re buying large numbers of these we know we can drive the price down.” The company researches and secures
grants and rolls the funding into the bids they can offer districts. “That’s the challenge for districts. This mon-
ey is available, but they don’t necessarily have the time, energy, capacity, and wherewithal to figure out how to do it,” said First Student Communications Director Chris Kemper. Hawkins added that districts are seeking cost parity with diesel buses, a goal First Stu- dent can help them achieve, especially when fuel and maintenance savings are figured in. “We’ll look at the price of an electric bus
with charging infrastructure against a diesel bus, figure out what our gap is, and start looking for grants,” Hawkins said. “Generally, we still have a bit of a gap, so then we start looking for grid revenues. It really is a very individualized process, we haven’t done two deals the same.” First Student has a partnership with the
Learn how
other school districts are calculating the ROI of their electric school buses at stnonline. com/go/a6.
power company NextEra Energy, and they are involved with a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot where districts can receive money for letting their bus serve as a battery on the grid. “In California during the day there’s more solar than they can use, and nowhere to put that solar,” Hawkins explained. “So, we put it into a bus sitting there between morning and afternoon runs. It’s back in the yard by 6 p.m., and that energy is now available to the grid.” Incentives from electric utilities for demand
response—agreeing not to charge buses during peak electricity demand times—can also help. School bus contractor National Express
40 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2021
operates five electric school buses in White Plains, New York, and company officials are talking with customers in Pennsylvania, Con- necticut and California to expand the electric presence. Keshav Ragunathan, the company’s senior director of asset management fleet and engineering, said that while each situation is different, return on investment for an electric bus might typically be seen in 12 to 16 years when all factors are accounted for. He noted that there are “many moving piec- es” in calculating an ROI, including fixed and variable costs. “Fixed costs (monthly payment, whether lease or depreciation) would go up with electric,” he said. “Variable costs driven by maintenance are expected to be lower.” The cost of charging infrastructure and
electricity must also be figured into the elec- tric bus equation but charging management plans can help reduce those costs, Raguna- than added. Charging management, V2G and carbon
cap-and-trade benefits, like the Low Car- bon Fuel Standard in California, are among the emerging programs that could increas- ingly offset electric bus costs in the future. That could be especially important since the Volkswagen mitigation settlement, which is funding many districts’ initial electric bus purchases, won’t be available for the long haul. “The settlement is a one-time opportunity
but has been a boon to many who want to pilot this technology,” Ragunathan said. “The current infrastructure bill going through the federal legislative process could aid a strong funding source if it becomes law. With respect to technological advancements long-term, the costs of batteries are expected to decrease. However, this will vary based on factors that are across manufacturers, like types of battery chemistry they use, demand from other vehi- cle types on batteries and overall improvement of reliability of batteries, which will also reduce life cycle costs.” Ragunathan added that ultimately the
innovation piece that is happening is driving the inevitable adoption of electric buses. The availability of grants and the spreading of public awareness will affect how quickly widespread adoption of elec- tric buses happens. ●
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