Dearborn Schools Gets First Electric School Bus In Michigan

DEARBORN, MI — Dearborn school officials unveiled Thursday the district's first electric school bus, which is also the first Blue Bird electric school bus in Michigan.

"We are thrilled to add the first electrical bus to our fleet and to test the school bus in our real-world environment year round," Superintendent Glenn Maleyko said. "Electric school buses help in reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Today marks an important step as we start to evaluate this new technology."

The bus can be recognized by the green Blue Bird logo with an electric plug along the top of the sides, and can carry up to 84 passengers for up to 120 miles on a single charge.

Transitioning to electric buses will help Dearborn Public Schools to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and save money on fuel and maintenance costs.

Some of the funding came from a $300,000 grant officials used through the American Rescue Plan Electric School Bus Rebate program, which is intended to replace older diesel school buses with zero-emissions electric buses. The district will also contribute about $100,000 to the final cost of the first bus, making the total bill to Dearborn Schools similar to what a traditional school bus costs to buy.

The Dearborn School District also received $7.1 million from the EPA to buy up to 18 additional electric school buses through the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebate program. The EPA classified Dearborn Public Schools as a priority district since about 70 percent of the families in the district are low-income.

School officials believe the district will save money in running the electric buses, as Blue Bird reports that customers typically spend about 14 cents a mile on energy costs for electric buses, compared to up to 49 cents per mile for traditional diesel buses.

Dearborn Schools runs 56 bus routes every day taking students to and from school. About 5,500 students ride a district bus to and from school, which equates to about 990,000 student trips a year. Thousands of other student trips are made for field trips, athletic events and shuttles between the high schools and the Dearborn Heights campus.