Motiv Power Systems to power 13 electric school buses in California pilot
11 May 2017
Motiv Power Systems, in partnership with Type-A school bus manufacturer Trans Tech, is bringing electric school buses to the Sacramento, California region. A $7.5-million grant from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will support the building of 13 battery-electric school buses as part of the Sacramento Regional Zero-Emission School Bus Deployment Project. The 13 buses will go to Elk Grove Unified School District and Twin Rivers Unified School District.
This is the board’s largest school bus grant to date and was the only application approved of all the school bus applications submitted to the state grant program.
The new all-electric buses will be powered by Motiv’s all-electric powertrains, which are both designed and manufactured in California, supporting local manufacturing jobs. The buses, Trans Tech’s all-electric eSeries built on the Ford E450 chassis, will be distributed by First Priority GreenFleet.
Motiv’s powertrain replaces the diesel or gasoline engine on a standard chassis. The powertrain includes a remote real-time data system which monitors vehicle performance, offers preventative and predictive diagnostics and allows remote software updates.
The electric school buses support a battery capacity of 85 or 106 kWh, with a range of 68 to 85 miles. The 150 kW electric motor delivers 1,200 N·m of torque (885 lb-ft). Top speed for the bus is 60 mph.
As the only all-electric technology approved by Ford for its commercial chassis, the Motiv All-Electric Powertrain has successfully been scaled from school buses in California and New York, to shuttle buses funded by Google and the California Energy Commission, delivery walk-in vans for AmeriPride and North America's only all-electric refuse truck deployed by the City of Chicago.
An excellent idea but there are many more superior electric school buses on the market.
Posted by: HarveyD | 15 May 2017 at 11:34 AM