Emissions-free school buses are on the rise nationwide. Now operating in 914 U.S. school districts and private fleet operators, a new report from the World Resources Institute concluded the number of committed electric school buses (ESBs) in the U.S. more than doubled in 2023.
Going from 598 in 2022 to 1,285 in June 2023, the electric school bus transition is an initiative under the federal government’s Clean School Bus Program to promote cleaner air across 40 states.
“Transitioning to electric school buses from traditional diesel-powered school buses can reduce students’ exposure to air pollution and decrease greenhouse gas emissions,” the report said. “School districts and private fleet operators around the United States are adopting electric school buses with increasing speed.”
WRI tracked the number of “committed” ESBs, or the point when a school district or fleet operator has been awarded funding to purchase it or has made formal agreement to purchase it from a manufacturer or dealer, to create a first-of-its-kind dataset that tracks ESB adoption across the United States.
California is the leader in the U.S. with more than 2,000 committed electric school buses, followed by Maryland with 391 commitments. Next is New Jersey, who added 107 new committed ESBs to its fleet and then West Virginia with 42 commitments, according to WRI.
“We estimate approximately 69,000 students across the country are currently served by electric school buses that are delivered or in operation,” Lydia Freehafer, Leah Lazer, and Brian Zepka, report authors, said.
While thus far ESB adoption has “not been tracked or reported in a centralized and publicly accessible way,” updated data from the World Resources institute aims to provide “accessible data and analyses that can help school district staff, advocates, policymakers, and other stakeholders make evidence-based decisions and support the transition to electric school buses,” WRI reported.
Currently, ESBs commitments are currently more evenly distributed across all regions of the country, according to findings from WRI.
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