Students at Gaylord Community Schools may be seeing new vehicles at the bus stop in 2020. The district is home to Michigan’s first electric school buses.
Officials said a state grant allowed the school district to buy two brand-new electric school buses that normally cost $342,000 for only $83,000.
The new buses will replace older diesel vehicles.
Gaylord Community Schools Head Mechanic Douglas Francis says the new buses will cost around $9 a day to recharge, a significant decrease from current fuel use.
“We’ll save 1,500 gallons of fuel per year by not using a diesel bus and going electric,” he says.
Francis says that in addition to lower fuel costs, electric buses are easier to maintain and will drop maintenance costs by 70 percent.
In the past, Francis said that often kids complain about the amount of exhaust near school buildings. He says the buses park right next to the school and when a breeze goes through the fumes often make their way into the building, and the switch will mean less exhaust around staff and students.
Gaylord Community Schools plans to have the new buses on their routes when students start up classes after the holidays.