Electric school bus replacement plan makes you say watt?
Michigan received a $125 million federal grant that it will share with school districts to cover the cost of buying 322 electric powered buses and 54 propane powered buses. The grant was designed to replace older diesel fueled buses with lower emission vehicles. With the grant ending, school districts will need to make their own purchase decisions about which vehicles are best.
Propane is a good choice for fueling school buses, especially in cold-weather states, such as northern states from Minnesota to New England, that are interested in lowering emissions. Propane offers lifetime cost savings over the second-best choice, diesel fueled buses that have much higher maintenance costs. Both propane and diesel-powered vehicles are more durable than gasoline fueled buses, and they have dramatically lower initial costs than electric buses. Electric buses come at about three times the cost of other choices, and they have higher costs for refueling infrastructure. Without federal grants, purchases of electric buses will likely disappear.
