Two of the four electric buses that Twin Cedars Community School District applied for an Environmental Protection Agency Grant in December of 2021 have started making their routes.
The district received $1.5 million through the grant for the buses and an additional $80,000 for charging stations. Twin Cedars incurred a cost of $50,000 to upgrade their electric service through MidAmerican Energy, but through investments, the district was able to pay for upgrades. Twin Cedars Superintendent Scott Bridges says while the topic of electric school buses can be controversial, they perform just like a diesel school bus on their routes.
“I actually went out when we got them, and sat on the bus with the bus driver, and we went and ran a route. We did not pick up any students, we just did the route. We drove it, stopped here and there and checked out to see how it did on the hills, and how the bus performed. And so, on that day when we rode it, it rode great, it handled the hills just fine, and it used about an eighth of a charge. And so, it rides like a school bus. If you were sitting on the bus, and you didn’t know it, it’s a little quieter, but you wouldn’t know that you are riding on an electric school bus.”