Oakland Pioneers the Future with the Arrival of America’s First All-Electric School Bus Fleet by Zum

Oakland welcomes the inaugural all-electric school bus fleet in the US

Zum, a firm specializing in electric bus transport and charging infrastructure for educational institutions, announces the introduction of the nation's first entirely electric fleet of school buses.

The firm has announced its commitment to supplying Oakland's Unified School District in California with 74 electric buses, along with the necessary charging infrastructure and a system to oversee operations. These electric vehicles (EVs) are set to take over from the current diesel-powered fleet and have the capability, as per Zum's statement, to contribute as much as 2.1 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually back to the power grid during times they are not in use for student transit.

Electric school buses have been considered before, but it's been reported by Zum that a staggering 90% out of almost half a million school buses across the country continue to run on fossil fuels. This results in the emission of approximately 8.4 million tons of greenhouse gases every year. Furthermore, the majority of these buses operate on diesel, posing an extra risk to the health of children who frequently breathe in these harmful exhaust emissions.

School buses powered by electricity featuring two-way charging stations from Zum

Zum pointed out that for electric school buses to contribute to the power grid through "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) technology, significant backing is needed from both regulatory authorities and power companies. Additionally, the press release mentioned that Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which supplies energy to the region encompassing Oakland Unified School District, supplied a charging capacity of 2.7 megawatts for the electric buses.

Zum has set a goal to deploy a fleet of 10,000 school buses equipped with the ability to charge in both directions, which the company says could contribute 300 gigawatt-hours of energy to power grids each year. Presently, Zum is collaborating with the school districts of San Francisco and Los Angeles, which operate bus fleets that are three times and six times bigger than Oakland's recently acquired electric fleet, to transition their school buses to electric power.

Zum supplies the electric school buses without being involved in their production. There are a few manufacturers of these vehicles, such as Lion Electric, which revealed its intention in 2021 to establish a facility in Illinois for the production of electric school buses and additional commercial vehicles. Furthermore, in 2022, the EPA disclosed a grant program approaching $1 billion designated for school districts intending to acquire these electric buses.

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