Hello green fellows!
The first all-electric school bus began transporting students to and from Kings Canyon Unified school district in central California this week! This new electric vehicle is estimated to save the school district around 16 gallons of fuel a day, which equates to a total annual savings of $10,000. For a school district like Kings Canyon, which serves one of the largest geographical areas in California, these savings are quite substantial. And there is more! Three other new electric buses are on their way to the Kings Canyon district and analogous programs are in the works in both Chicago and New York.
This project is the result of collaboration between the California Air Resources Board –also known as CARB or ARB-, the company Motiv Power Systems and Trans Tech Bus Company, the manufacturer of industry-leading conventional and environmental-friendly electric school buses. The California Air Resources Board is the "clean air agency" in the government of California. This agency contributed at least $400,000 cost-saving vouchers to this ambitious project. The bus is called "the SST-E", which is the electric version of Trans Tech’s popular SST model.
The initial cost of an electric bus may be much higher than a traditional gas-guzzling bus, but the electric ones offer long term savings such as: lifelong fuel and maintenance costs and of course a huge reduction of harmful greenhouse gases. According to founder and CEO of Motive Power Systems, “The buses cost about twice as much as a comparable gas bus, but cost 1/8 as much to fuel and 1/3 as much to maintain,” he said. “In the life of a school bus, 2-3 times the cost of the vehicle is spent on fuel and maintenance.”
The electric buses are equipped with four or five battery packs that allow for a range of 80 to 100 miles. Only one bad thing is the fact that only 25 students (or 18 students with a wheelchair lift) can be seated on the new electric buses. In other words, the electric buses are smaller than the traditional ones. That’s why full-size electric buses are also being considered for an all-electric makeover in the future.
Well buddies, do you think this kind of buses can soon ride in Belgium as well?
Cheeerio!
Klara, Klaas and Sarah
I think it would definitely be a good idea to imply these kind of buses in Belgium too, at least for the traditional school buses that still go pick children up at their home in a certain area and drop them off again after school.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenFor De Lijn buses, I think it's not very realistic. These buses do a lot of miles each day, because they do the same route all day and they would have to carry a lot of battery packs.