Blue Bird Corporation has received the order of electric school buses from a school district in its history. Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) ordered 180 electric, zero-emission school buses through their local Blue Bird dealer, A-Z Bus Sales Inc. The unprecedented order will help the school district transition the first of several depots to 100% electric student transportation advancing its ambitious goals of reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions while improving operational efficiencies. LAUSD already operates twenty-six Blue Bird electric school buses in its fleet.

Moving forward, the school bus manufacturer will provide 30 Vision and 150 All American electric buses to significantly enlarge the districts' zero-emission school bus fleet. LAUSD anticipates delivery of the first buses in October 2024 and for the order to be fulfilled in early 2025. Both model vehicles have a range of up to 130 miles on a single charge.

Based on LAUSD's future charging infrastructure, the buses could take between three and eight hours to recharge fully. Blue Bird electric buses come standard with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability. This bi-directional charging technology will allow LAUSD to potentially sell excess energy stored in school bus batteries back to electric power companies at a profit.

In addition, V2G programs help balance demands on the grid and improve grid resiliency. Blue Bird recently celebrated the milestone delivery of its 1500th electric school bus - and industry first. The company's zero-emission vehicles now operate across 41 U.S. states.

With districts increasingly transition to clean student transportation, Blue Bird has invested heavily in expanding its electric school bus production capacity. The bus manufacturer opened its Electric Vehicle (EV) Build-up Center, which will enable Blue Bird to build up to 5,000 electric school buses a year in the long-term.