I live in in a modest size midwest metro area. Here is what the local bus system has to say about all electric buses,
https://mtd.org/inside/projects/zero-emission-technology/
From the article:
“We want to plan our service to serve our community. We don’t want to plan our service to serve our equipment. The beauty of the fuel cell bus is that, operationally, there are no alterations to our system that we need to make. The battery-electric buses do not have the range that allow you to just put a bus out and have it run for 18 hours. A hydrogen bus has a range that is equivalent to a diesel bus, so it’s a one-for-one replacement.” — Karl Gnadt, Managing Director
Electric buses of any kind are insane imo and something very bad is going to happen.
Watch this video of Dr. Christensen - he starts at the 1 minute mark and there is a brief commercial for the fire conference in the middle but its only about 30 minutes. You will learn a lot.
I have tremendous respect for him but I disagree with some of his opinions like “we have to park these in underground garages”. Regardless of what just started the Luton parking garage fire (Hybrid or Diesel, who cares because fires happen) it is a question of fuel loading and what happens to concrete and steel at such temperatures. He talks about that a little bit in this video but for fire protection engineering and design nobody is taking into account 4 EV’s (or more) burning in one area of an older underground car park at a bank of charging stations.
They DO burn hotter and longer and they weigh more. Concrete does not react well to really high temperatures.
Another thing to consider about “school buses” is that they will be the equivalent of 5-7 90kWh Tesla batteries in one vehicle. Most packs are underneath the bus but they often put one or two on top. When you watch the video he shows of the white Tesla in the parking garage it is 6 seconds from venting to deflagration (subsonic explosion or rapid burning) and that is ONE battery. Imagine this event on a school bus OR if the school bus is t-boned as he shows the video of the Tesla exploding after a collision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIXTP-TgPEw
Another irony you will learn from the engineers about electric batteries is how they are more prone to thermal runaway in warmer temperatures.
Consider electric school buses in Texas, Florida, or Arizona for example.
While they might take longer to charge in northern climates (they don’t like cold either) they will probably be less likely to enter thermal runaway.
The sad reality is that it only takes one single cell or pouch to fail and its off to the races..... when Tesla used 18650 cells that could be 1 out of 8000.
Another fun fact about school buses -
Here is a recall for childrens clothing from June of this year for not meeting flammability testing standards. I kid you not.....
If this is the standard can you explain to me how/why we are going to put children on electric buses when we know they can explode, break out into rapid and violent fire with very high temperatures, release toxic gases and carcinogenic metallic oxide nanoparticles if one cell among hundreds or thousands has a bad day?