Blue Bird announced this month that it has reached the milestone of 500 electric-powered school buses delivered or on order in North America.
We already knew that Blue Bird is selling a lot of electric school buses, as in October the company expected to have close to 300 units on the road by the end of 2020.
"As the only school bus manufacturer that produces and sells all three school-bus body configurations in EV, Blue Bird expects its electric bus sales to accelerate through the rest of 2021."
The biggest market for the electric Blue Birds is California, where over 300 units were delivered by the A-Z Bus Sales dealership.
School buses appear to be the hottest segment of the electric bus market as other manufacturers also notes significant demand. There are some 600,000 school buses in service in the U.S. and Canada, so the sales are expected only to go up this decade.
Blue Bird intends to increase its EV production capacity to 3,000 units annually next year, which is a big increase from the previous target to reach 1,000 units a year.
The company expects that by 2030, nearly 100% of its sales will come from EV school buses. Will there be anyone who still buys diesels in 10 years?
Phil Horlock, president and CEO of Blue Bird Corporation said:
“Customer interest and excitement in owning a Blue Bird electric-powered school bus is increasing every day and we are thrilled to reach the sales milestone of 500 electric-powered buses hitting the road this year. We are committed to providing school bus fleets with safe, clean-power transportation, and with electric-powered buses it’s easy to see how students and the community can benefit.
Across North America, Blue Bird school buses transport more than eight million children to school each day; by eliminating harmful NOx emissions from the tailpipe, we are protecting students against the risk of asthma and lung disease. Safe, clean transportation is our priority.”
“In the push for clean transportation, we expect municipalities to incorporate more zero-emission vehicles in their fleets, which include around 600,000 school buses. In anticipation of the growth in demand, we’ll be increasing our EV production capacity to 3,000 units next year. We fully expect that by 2030, nearly 100% of our sales will come from EV school buses,”
The Blue Bird are powered by Cummins PowerDrive 7000 propulsion system, and can be equipped with up to 155 kWh battery packs for a range of up to 120 miles (193 km) on a single charge.
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