CONNECTICUT, USA — Over the next several years, the way students will be getting to school will be cleaner and greener. Connecticut is driving toward modernizing school transportation.
“If this change is going to be happening then we want to be at the forefront of it,” said DATTCO bus company owner Kevin DeVivo.
The buses may look the same, but under the hood they are different.
“No more engine. You have the high voltage boxes,” described DATTCO bus driver Frank Shipuleski.
All electric school buses are coming to Connecticut. DATTCO is the recipient of a $33-million grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
“That is going to fund 85 electric buses going into 5 districts throughout New England,” said DeVivo, who not only owns DATTCO bus company but also is a dealer of new school buses.
25 of these new electric buses will go to Hartford Public Schools and 25 more are heading to the Connecticut Technical Education Career System schools. The rest of the buses are heading to the Massachusetts districts of Fall River, New Bedford and Worcester.
“Compared to a diesel bus it’s very smooth and very quiet. It’s the first time you can turn the radio on and listen to it,” described Shipuleski.
Driving the electric buses takes a little getting used to.
“In the past to make a diesel bus go you really had to push on the throttle. With these they are just using electricity you don’t need to,” added Shipuleski.
The bus has new safety features including a top speed restrictor, and because it’s so quiet, it has a noise generator when traveling at a slow speed so a person can hear it coming.
Despite not having an engine, the massive batteries actually make the all electric bus heavier than a diesel one. But it has zero emissions.
“The maintenance is less on it because you’re not doing the oil changes and stuff that we do,” said Shipuleski.
And while the technology is here now, it isn’t yet mainstream, especially the charging infrastructure. Each bus puts an additional strain on the electric grid.
“We are not there right now for the generation capacity that will be required for a wholesale change but that’s a challenge that is exciting for us to meet,” said DeVivo.
For all the pluses of an electric bus, there is one downside - range anxiety. Because it runs on battery, its range is limited to a little more than 250 miles on a single charge. It’s enough to get through a day of routine bus routes, but not enough to take on a chartered trip without a recharge.
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