Is your school district interested in a multi-week “test drive” of a new electric school bus? The U.S. Department of Energy’s Mid-Atlantic Electric School Bus Experience Project is working with Virginia Clean Cities, school bus manufacturers and other partners to provide free electric school buses for six to eight week demonstrations in school fleets over the next two years.
Benefits of electric school buses include:
- Protect children’s health through improved air quality
- Reduce operating and maintenance costs
- Achieve system sustainability goals
- Teachable moments and cool technology
These short-term demonstrations are a fantastic opportunity for your school administrators, mechanics, drivers, faculty and students to experience electric school buses firsthand on your existing routes, without any cost or long-term commitment. These experiences will help:
- Showcase the benefits and build local support
- Familiarize staff with the technology
- Provide experience for future funding opportunities
We are seeking schools, school districts and school transportation contractors interested in deploying one or more electric school buses into their regular transportation service for a six to eight week demonstration in the multi-state project region.
School partners will be supported before, during and after the demonstration period, helping to facilitate the process and providing technical assistance, including staff training to support operations and data collection. We are now accepting applications for the ‘20/’21, ‘21/’22 and ‘22/’23 school years on a rolling basis, and plan to select at least one school fleet per state/region.
School Partners are also eligible to receive a free Level 2 charging station for the bus during the demonstration project, for them to keep after conclusion of each demonstration.