In collaboration with the Electric School Bus (ESB) program of Dominion Energy, a regional utility headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Daimler Truck North America subsidiary Thomas Built Buses (TBB) has announced that the state has now surpassed 1.5 million electric school bus miles driven.
Also partnering in the program is Virginia bus dealer Sonny Merryman. The dealer aims to have a total of 224 TBB Jouley units delivered by the end of the school year. Dominion’s ESB program, launched in 2019, is the largest utility-led initiative of its kind in the US. It has a current fleet of more than 135 buses operating in 25 Virginia districts.
The program has helped school districts overcome technical and financial hurdles of electric school bus adoption. The company has supported a number of districts in applying for the 2023 EPA Clean School Bus Program and is also planning to soft-launch the deployment of school bus V2G technology this summer.
The ESB program “goes beyond providing financial support; it forges partnerships in training, utility engagement, service and maintenance, and other program components,” according to Whitney Kopanko, Director of Marketing and School Bus Sales, at Sonny Merryman.
Source: Thomas Built Buses
