Blue Bird’s electric school buses hit a milestone

Blue Bird Corporation, the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, has delivered its 2,000th electric, zero-emission school bus marking an industry-leading milestone. Clark County School District (CCSD) in Nevada received Blue Bird’s 2,000th electric vehicle (EV) to help the nation’s fifth largest school district transition its school bus fleet to clean student transportation.

CCSD operates 373 schools serving more than 300,000 students. The district maintains a bus fleet of more than 1,900 vehicles. CCSD transports over 123,000 students each school day on more than 1,400 bus routes.

Blue Bird provided its most advanced All-American electric school bus to CCSD. Featuring Blue Bird’s new, extended range battery, CCSD’s milestone zero-emission vehicle can carry 84 students. Depending on the charging infrastructure, the bus takes between three and eight hours to recharge fully.

CCSD received a $9.875 million grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program to purchase electric school buses, including Blue Bird’s zero-emission milestone unit. This program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) which provides a total of $5 billion over five years for clean school bus transportation nationwide.

“Today, we delivered our 2,000th electric, zero-emission school bus in North America. We are thrilled to celebrate this major industry milestone with Clark County School District. Blue Bird is recognized as the undisputed leader in the field of clean student transportation. Electric school buses mean cleaner air to breathe for students, drivers, and the community at large,” says Britton Smith, president at Blue Bird Corporation. “Local, state, and federal funding for clean school buses remains at an historic high. Above all, we applaud the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program for accelerating the adoption of zero-emission student transportation nationwide and for helping to usher in an unprecedented era of technology innovation.”

CCSD’s milestone unit is now one of more than 2,000 Blue Bird electric school buses serving school districts across 41 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. Replacing 2,000 diesel-powered and polluting school buses with an equal number of zero-emission vehicles reduces harmful carbon emissions by more than 21,000 metric tons annually. In addition, nearly 150,000 students a day are no longer exposed to diesel tailpipe emissions linked to serious health issues such as asthma or heart disease.

Blue Bird’s electric school buses have covered more than five million miles already. That is the same distance as driving the legendary Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles more than 2,000 times.

Blue Bird continues to significantly expand its electric school bus production in Fort Valley, Georgia. In 2023, the company opened a 40,000 square foot Electric Vehicle (EV) Build-up Center. In addition, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently selected Blue Bird to receive an $80 million grant to convert a former manufacturing site for diesel-powered motorhomes into an approximately 600,000 ft², state-of-the-art electric vehicle manufacturing facility. The continued investments will enable the company to increase its long-term production capacity in excess of 5,000 electric school buses per year.

Blue Bird's zero-emission school buses are powered by the electric PowerDrive 7000 system from Accelera by Cummins, which is a result of their long-standing collaboration on technology innovation. This partnership has been instrumental in providing school districts nationwide with sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation solutions.

Clark County School District purchased its advanced electric vehicle through Blue Bird’s authorized school bus dealer Bryson Sales & Service Inc., a family-owned, Utah-based business founded in 1969.