Electric school bus commitments rose 1,000 percent in United States school districts since 2021, according to the latest update from the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Electric School Bus Initiative.
As of October 1, WRI reported a total of 12,241 electric school bus commitments, which are defined across four stages:
Of the commitments, WRI says that about 5,000 buses are serving 254,000 students in 49 states, Washington D.C., American Samoa and Puerto Rico, and seven tribal schools.
More than two-thirds of the committed buses were funded by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, which has awarded nearly $3 billion to fund over 8,000 school bus replacements for 1,200 school districts.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 provides the funding for the electric bus program. A fourth round of funding worth $1 billion was announced in September 2024.
Key findings from the WRI’s October report include:
Since 2012, when the first electric school buses were committed, 52 percent of all electric bus commitments have translated into bus orders.
California leads the U.S. in electric bus adoption with 3,110 followed by New York with 784, Illinois 617, Pennsylvania 469 and Florida at 467.
State legislatures across the country are also embracing the electric school bus transition. WRI reports that seven states since 2022 have statutorily enacted zero-emission school bus transition requirements. Colorado, Michigan and Washington D.C. have non-binding transition goals, aiming for 100 percent zero-emissions buses by 2035, 100 percent school bus sales to be electric by 2030 and the replacement of 100 percent of school buses with electric models which began in 2021.
The top five school districts that have ordered, delivered or are operating electric buses as of October 2024 are:
Dave Lubach is executive editor of the facilities market.
