Montgomery County Schools Begin Largest Deployment Of Electric Buses

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Montgomery County Public Schools held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda on Monday to mark the launch of the country’s single largest deployment of electric school buses.

MCPS hopes to have 326 electric school buses operating in the county in three years and an entirely electric school bus fleet in 10 years.

During the 2021-22 school year, MCPS installed electric infrastructure at one of its transportation depots. The school system received delivery of its first 25 electric buses. This school year, another 61 buses will be delivered, and electric infrastructure will be installed at three more transportation depots.

"Moving to electric transportation is not only a necessary response to climate change, but it is also something students have asked for at Board of Education meetings," Montgomery Board of Education President Brenda Wolff said in a statement.

MCPS is partnering with Highland Electric Fleets on providing the new electric school buses.

"Partnerships with organizations like Highland are so important. It allows us to demonstrate our commitment to becoming a more sustainable organization while defraying the high upfront cost of electric school buses," Wolff said.

Climate change and concerns about student and community health are driving school bus electrification mandates around the country, including in Maryland. The state's Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022 requires all new school bus purchases and contracts to be electric by 2025.

Toxic pollutants can be as much as 2.5 times more prevalent inside a typical diesel school bus than inside an electric school bus, Maryland House Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo said at the ceremony.

“Considering this, along with the carbon emissions caused by the 17,000 gallons of fuel that MCPS diesel buses use daily, electrifying our school bus fleets is an imperative public health, climate change, and environmental priority,” Fraser-Hidalgo said.

On a typical school day, MCPS diesel buses use about 17,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Replacing the diesel bus fleet with electric buses brings MCPS closer to its pledge of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2027 and 100 percent by 2035, the school system said.

Highland Electric Fleets is partnering with MCPS to upgrade 326 school buses to electric by 2025.

"This project is momentous not only for its size but also because it demonstrates that school bus fleet electrification is not a pipe dream or something to be deferred," Duncan McIntyre, CEO of Highland Electric Fleets, said in a statement.