Ann Arbor Public Schools to deploy four electric school buses in 2020

ANN ARBOR – Ann Arbor Public Schools will be adding four new electric school buses to its fleet next year.

Michigan's first ever electric school buses were showcased in Lansing on Thursday, and AAPS officials were in attendance, along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, lawmakers, school district and utility representatives and the director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy's Fuel Transformation Program, Liesl Clark, among others.

Seventeen electric buses will be deployed in seven Michigan school districts under an EGLE diesel bus replacement program funded in part by a Volkswagen mitigation settlement.

In the nationwide settlement, the German car manufacturer was fined for fitting many of its diesel vehicles with emission control defeat devices.

The goal of the electric school bus program is to provide a safer environment for children by supporting cleaner air by eliminating dangerous diesel exhaust fumes and particles. These fumes contain more than 40 contaminants labeled as hazardous air pollutants or criteria pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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The seven participating school districts include:

• Ann Arbor
• Gaylord
• Kalamazoo
• Oxford 
• Roseville
• Three Rivers
• Zeeland

At the ceremony, Marios Demetriou, AAPS assistant superintendent for finance and operations, made the following statement:

"Ann Arbor Public Schools is excited to partner with DTE, Proterra, Thomas Built Buses and Hoekstra to add four electric buses to our transportation fleet made possible by the Volkswagen grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

"This project helps us to continue to work towards our goal of environmental sustainability. AAPS and the Ann Arbor community believe that climate change is real, increasing and caused by human activity. At AAPS, we are committed to practices that support a healthy environment for present and future generations. 

"Our plans are to use these four buses not only for transportation, but for education, as well. We plan to use one of our electric buses to transport students to and from our STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) at Northside school and one bus to transport students to and from the Freeman Environmental Education Center. The aforementioned buses will be used as mobile laboratories while they are transporting students.

"We will use one electric bus to transport students at our highest poverty schools, and finally, we will use one bus to transport our students to and from a school located in downtown Ann Arbor for maximum exposure. 

"We know energy that is economically and environmentally feasible is in high demand all over the world, and it is needed now. 

"Electric buses are better for the environment, and in the long run, they will save us fuel and maintenance costs. We have also partnered with the University of Michigan Energy Institute to gather all data from our buses, to do research, to make recommendations, to innovate and to assist the district on many of its energy initiatives. We aspire to be responsive to changing technology and to pilot, along with other districts, this new use of electric buses in Michigan schools."

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