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@FrayJay @arstechnica School buses make up to six runs per day, and they are used for field trips. The miles can add up, especially in large, sparsely populated districts.

Also, I expect that range estimate can vary wildly in different climates and locales. If the bus needs to run air conditioning or go up and down hills, its range may drop precipitously.

@bruce @FrayJay @arstechnica exactly. Heat or A/C (an option that might not be installed since it’s 10k-20k $USD extra by the way) can really eat up range. Some actually offer a diesel fired heater for that reason. I don’t know if any of them use heat pump type systems instead of resistive electric heat. Tours are quite a lot of stop and go throughout however many miles it is (ours range from 30-60 miles, 60-120/day for the small rural bus co I’m sub for)

@zop @bruce @arstechnica ac/heating are very good points but hills and stop and go are actually not that bad for electric vehicles with recuperation.

But what I m asking is: why 300miles if that's a full day of driving at the extreme? Can't they just recharge for 30min between trips if the max typical is 150miles? 300miles - That's 6 hours+ of non stop driving...no toilet break?

Haven't lived in rural US myself, so interesting insights, thanks.

@FrayJay @bruce @arstechnica there’s not any time between multiple tours at the same end of the day. If you’re running two or three tours for a school that’s three back to back. Or you’re starting that first tour a couple of hours earlier. The early route might already be having to have kids up and at their stop for pick up by 0600 All the kids have to be at school before the first bell. Afternoon routes same deal only there has to be paid staff at the school until the last kids leave and the last bus finishes unloading the last kid, at 1700-1800 - real times from when I was a kid my rural route had me on the “early” AM and “late” PM where nearly each bus driver was doing two tours AM/PM. You can’t just go back to the bus barn to charge it.
@FrayJay @bruce @arstechnica as for bathroom breaks on those long/multiple tours - you take that at a school, not the bus barn. Even for my tiny district, unless the extra curricular tour leaves in the afternoon, very unusual except for the sports trips, you finish the regular route and stay at the school despite the bus barn only being 3mi one way and no traffic ever. Since you’re only sitting for maybe 30m - drop kids at 745-800, leave again loaded at 0830-0845 — yes occasionally it’s an hour at the very outside. Like I said before though we won’t/can’t use a 150mi range unit for field trips. 300 sure but no one is actually selling 300mi units into the US market. They cost a ton more. The article is talking about a configuration that GreenPower doesn’t even yet advertise, but it’s a configuration that would work much better. At the current “industry” average of around 150mi a lot of school bus co absolutely can not go electric, I don’t know the numbers, but my sense is that’s not the majority. And honestly without the grant program my bus co would NOT be getting electric. The up front high costs (bus, charging infra) and inability to be used for certain tours makes them a non-starter. We’ve got 5 buses total, four regular routes, very small.

For our regular routes the electrics are a great idea, but barely, with the up front cost, even with $4.80+/gal fuel prices.

@FrayJay @zop @arstechnica
Regenerative braking helps, but it's not a panacea. The bus will still use significantly more power than it would on a mostly flat route.

@FrayJay @arstechnica up to. Stop and go definitely eats up range. I’m a sub here in rural MT, USA, we’re getting two electric buses as part of a grant program, replacing a couple of our diesel units. They’re arriving in a month or so last we got an update. Our longest tour here is 50-60 miles, morning and afternoon. We probably won’t be able to use them for any field trips because they’re ~150 mile range units built by Lion. Small school, small bus co, no units with multiple scheduled tours per day. 300mi range isn’t at all unreasonable for a school bus. Our diesel units generally have 500-800 miles (actual) range and for extra curricular/field trip tours we can easily hit 200-300 miles. We don’t get AC in our units. Heat is actually a diesel fired heater (with a 150 mile or even 300 mile range we would probably have a dead battery before finishing most of our four regular route tours)
@FrayJay @arstechnica if it is charging from solar then the larger battery is a buffer against cloudy days, though I doubt the price tag would justify the energy savings.