ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Next week, kids across the region will be heading back to school. While most of them will be getting picked up by a traditional diesel-powered yellow school bus, some may have a quieter ride.

While most local districts still don’t have a single electric school bus, that’s going to have to change. 

New York State is mandating that every district stop buying new diesel buses by 2027 and stop using all diesel buses by 2035.

80 buses will be picking up kids in the Gates-Chili School District come next week, five of them are electric. The drivers generally like the new, more environmentally-friendly ones.

“They handle great, just like a regular bus and they like the instant heat. They like going in, turning the heat on, and they have heat right away,” says Matt Helmbold, Director of Transportation for Gates-Chili.

But the buses aren’t cheap. The average diesel school bus costs about $130,000. The average electric school bus is upwards of $400,0000.

The Gates-Chili School district was one of the first in the state to qualify and be awarded grants through NYSERDA to off-set the cost. 

Jennifer Lewke, News10NBC:  “The money that the state and the feds offer to sort of off set the cost, that has to keep flowing or else you’re going to have to ask for a lot of money from taxpayers to completely redo the fleet?

Matt Helmbold: “Correct.”

That’s what has other school districts worried. News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke brought those concerns to the Director of Clean Transportation at NYSERDA. 

Jennifer Lewke: “How are the numbers going to line up to be able to reach those goals money wise as we move forward?”

Adam Ruder, NYSERDA: “The transition is going to cost a good bit of money, fortunately right now there’s not just state money but federal money.”

There are hundreds of millions of dollars set aside to offer grants to help, but it’s going to cost billions. There are other questions too.

Jennifer Lewke: “Can our power infrastructure, can our electric infrastructure handle a complete transition to this? How do you assess that?”

Adam Ruder: “So, that’s one of the reasons that doing this planning step first is really important… Virtually all of them (districts), have enough power for the first few buses right now, to fully electrify fleets but a lot of them will need upgrades but that’s why we want to start now.”

NYSERDA says it will cover the cost of an “electrification plan” for all school districts.  Engineers look at all the bus routes, the geography of the district, the climate, the bus depot and the charging availability and put together a transition plan. 

Jennifer Lewke: “Obviously, Upstate New York has some very significant weather events, parents worry that their children might be stuck on a bus that’s dead on the side of the road?”

Adam Ruder: “Cold weather effects every vehicle, certainly electric vehicles are effected by cold weather and the range is shorter in cold weather but we’ve seen districts like Malone, right on the Canadian border, Alexandria Bay, up in the 1000 islands, running electric buses this past winter…Even by 2030, 2032, 2033, you’re still going to have a pretty good chunk of your buses that will be diesel or gasoline that can do some of those longer routes, and the field trips, and the sporting events. There’s a lot of time for the technology to improve over that period.”

NYSERDA is hoping with improved technology, the price of the buses and charging stations will drop too. Districts say they’ll need to, to make a full transition to electric fleets feasible in the next decade.

Jennifer Lewke: Many of them (districts) have concerns about the timeline. Are you hearing those concerns from them and how do you address that

Adam Ruder: “We’ve talked to schools across the state and yes we have heard those concerns. All I can say is that right now, the best thing to do is get started.”

Only about half of the districts in the state have applied for the money to have the electrification plan conducted. NYSERDA is hoping more of them hop on board because right now, these mandates are full speed ahead.

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