A California School District Is First In The Nation To Include All-Electric School Buses In Its Fleet
May 7, 2014 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis As private industries have for years been incorporating electric vehicles into their fleets, now the trend is increasingly moving into the public sector – first with electric commuter buses and now for the first time school buses.
In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the Kings Canyon Unified School District has just become the first school district in the nation to incorporate all-electric school buses into its fleet.
These new all-electric buses are expected to save Kings Canyon Unified School District over $10,000 a year in fuel and maintenance costs, while also eliminating student exposure to particulate air emissions. Photo courtesy of Motiv Power Systems.The district ordered four buses from Trans Tech Bus, which is a manufacturer of conventional and environmentally-friendly type A school buses. Called the SST-e, these electric vehicles of Trans Tech’s popular SST model use a Ford E450 cutaway chassis equipped with a Motiv Power System’s electric powertrain.
Motiv builds and designs an electric powertrain control system (ePCS) that can be modified for use in medium to heavy duty all-electric vehicles – including box trucks, flat/stake beds, refrigerated trucks, utility/service bodies, shuttle buses, delivery vehicles, and refuse trucks – that have a variety of batteries and motors.
The Trans Tech/Motiv SST-e school buses have been designed to allow for a lot of customizing flexibility. They can hold either 25 students in traditional seating or 18 students with a wheelchair lift and configurable track seating for up to three wheelchairs.