Coachella Valley Unified School District’s department of transportation will add two new all-electric school buses next school year, reports the Desert Sun.
The South Coast Air Quality Management unanimously approved an $8.8 million dollar grant to purchase 33 electric buses and provide charging stations for 16 school districts and two charter schools as 51 districts in all applied.
According to Apolonio Del Toro, transportation director in Coachella Valley Unified, the interest to purchase electric buses stemmed on the very need of replacing the current district’s need.
Del Toro mentions that replacing their fleet with electric buses was a befitting opportunity to restore add to the fleet and reduce emissions.
Coachella’s current fleet has 98 buses, 13 of which are powered by natural gas.
Del Toro has detailed that the switch to electric buses can mean an efficient impression both on school transportation operations and the community at large by recycling energy and reducing gas emissions.
