While several industry insiders told School Transportation News last week that it was too early to tell the impact of new Trump administration tariffs on imports, Blue Bird representatives told investors to expect a 5-percent price increase on all non-electric school buses.
The company made the statement last week during its fiscal year 2025 first quarter financial results call, which reported the company’s second-best quarterly profit and margin, the eighth consecutive quarter of beating guidance, and $250 million of electric school buses in “firm order backlog.”
“Our position is that any potential government tariffs will be passed through to the end customer so there will be no net financial impact on Blue Bird,” said Phil Horlock, who is retiring as president and CEO this week but retaining his board of director seat.
John Wyskiel succeeds Horlock on Feb. 17.
Last week, President Donald Trump paused for 30 days a 25-percent tariff on imported goods from both Canada and Mexico, though a 10-percent tariff on Chinese imports went into effect. Essentially, think of tariffs as an added sales tax by the federal government, Blue Bird CFO Razvan Radulescu said during the Q&A portion of the call on Feb. 5.
Meanwhile, Horlock said Blue Bird is confident U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean School Bus Program funding will continue unfettered. He shared details from a Feb. 4 memo issued by Gregg Treml, the acting CFO of EPA, that stated a federal court injunction pausing Trump administration freezes on unspent federal program funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act “shall not be paused and disbursement of funds shall continue while ongoing litigation proceeds or until otherwise directed by a Court.”
Horlock said Blue Bird also has confirmed political support for the Clean School Bus Program with members of Congress.
He added the court order reversing the freeze should also protect nearly $80 million in Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant Program funding from the U.S. Department of Energy that was appropriated under the Inflation Recovery Act. The funds are to be used to convert Blue Bird’s diesel motorhome manufacturing plant in Fort Valley, Georgia, into a 600,000 square-foot Type D electric school bus facility.
To address the initial pause in EPA funding, Horlock said Blue Bird reprioritized production to build fully-funded school buses earlier and pushed back build dates for bus orders to be paid for with federal money. He added the manufacturer is also prioritizing “significant new EV orders” paid for by state and local funding. Still, Blue Bird lowered the number of forecasted electric school bus deliveries to 1,000 units from the previous range of 1,000 to 1,300.
The company also noted higher internal combustion engine school bus prices compared to a year ago and at comparable levels with its competitors.
Blue Bird also said the quarter-one results beat the previous guidance and that it remained on track to meet the full-year guidance of Adjusted EBITDA at $200 million and a 14-percent margin.
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