Re. “School districts in Memphis and beyond would benefit by going to all-electric bus fleet” by Isabel Gonzalez Whitaker, Sept. 3 (online) and Sept. 8 (print).
Ms. Whitaker’s assertion that electric school buses deserve an A-plus grade leaves out several important facts about propane school buses.
For example, there’s the cost of the bus itself — propane buses cost roughly a third of their electric counterparts, which is challenging enough for school districts battling tight budgets.
But there’s another cost factor that is often overlooked, and that’s recharging. The costs are substantial … it’s not enough to say all one has to do is plug in an electric bus and let it charge for several hours. What about site preparation costs to install all those necessary chargers, not to mention the transformers, trenching, conduits, cables and paving required to run a power line to the charging center?
On the other hand, propane refueling infrastructure is often available at little or no cost with the commitment to a contract with a propane provider.