Daimler has announced a project that will provide 50 fully-electric school buses to the state of Virginia.
With vast fleets of school buses across the USA, they have been identified as one of the most crucial markets to cut emissions by employing plug-in power and also vehicle-to-grid technology, which will supply power back to the grid when they’re not in use.
Thomas Built Buses, the North American Daimler Trucks subsidiary, was selected to provide the first 50 fully-electric versions of the iconic black and yellow school buses in the first step of an initiative by Virginia based power company Dominion Energy, which plans to switch 1,050 of the school buses in Virginia from diesel to electrically powered ones. As a result, the American Daimler Trucks subsidiary has won the largest order to date for electric school buses in the US.
The electric battery technology for the Jouley is the result of a cooperation with the Californian company Proterra and boasts a total power capacity of 220kWh and an estimated range of 134 miles. At present, Thomas Built Buses is the only school bus manufacturer to offer DC fast charging architecture as standard equipment. The locally emissions-free Jouley can be charged in about three hours with the optional Proterra 60kW fast charging system and can, when properly equipped, supply power back to the power grid using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.
