YPSILANTI, MI – Students took their first ride on Ypsilanti Community School’s new electric buses on Monday.
The 10 buses and their charging stations came to the district via $3.95 million in federal funding in an effort to reduce diesel emissions.
The buses join the district’s fleet of 33 buses. On July 8, they brought approximately 1,500 summer school students to class, according to Transportation Director Annette Adams. During the school year, buses transport around 4,300 students.
When a driver takes their foot off the accelerator, the bus braking system regenerates electricity that is sent back into the batteries.
“It’s making power as it goes,” Adams said.
The buses are charged after each trip, Cochran said.
The district typically leases its buses, and the electric buses are the first it has owned, Adams said.
The district is one of 25 Michigan school districts to receive funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program in 2022. The federal program provides $5 billion over five years to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and clean school buses.
The low and zero-emission buses are meant to benefit communities that have been historically underserved, an EPA official previously said, noting the buses play a role in accelerating decarbonization of the transportation sector and improving air quality for schoolchildren.
EPA officials chose school districts serving low-income, rural, or Tribal students for 99% of the selected projects nationwide.
This year, 27 additional Michigan school districts received awards under the program, which will help buy 97 buses powered by electricity and three powered by propane, the state announced in May. That included districts in Ann Arbor and Saline.
The investments aid the state in achieving its goals laid out in the MI Healthy Climate Plan, Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Director Phil Roos said in a statement. The plan lays out the vision for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s goal of achieving “economy-wide” carbon neutrality by 2050.