Maryland is one of the states pushing hardest for electric school buses, with millions of state and federal funds distributed in recent years and hundreds of vehicles rolling out across a handful of school districts.
Advocates are optimistic about transitioning toward a clean-energy ride to school, noting the environmental benefits and positive impacts on children’s health. But there are also challenges, including a lack of charging infrastructure, mechanical failures and up-front costs as high as $400,000 per bus.
Federal tax credits for electric school buses, passed under former President Joe Biden, are phasing out at an accelerated pace, following the passage this summer of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The White House has referred to clean energy projects as a “Green New Scam,” saying the president favors “reliable” nuclear and fossil fuels.
The Federal Transit Administration also drew attention in August to battery fires in decommissioned electric buses. “This is not the first green deal initiative to backfire with serious long-term ramifications, bringing into question how safe and efficient these investments are,” said FTA Administrator Marc Molinaro.
Supporters of electric buses, however, claim that diesel-powered bus emissions impact children’s health. Sue Gander, director of the Electric School Bus Initiative at the World Resources Institute, noted research showing an association between diesel-powered bus emissions and respiratory diseases like asthma, one of the leading reasons nationwide for student absences. Greenhouse gas emissions from an electric bus, meanwhile, are half that of a diesel or propane-powered bus.
“You’ve got kids with developing lungs, who are more sensitive to emissions,” Gander said.
The buses are also quieter.
“It’s easier for the driver to drive,” she said. “The kids don’t have to shout over each other.”
But Republican Sen. Justin Ready, who serves as Senate minority whip and represents Carroll and Frederick counties, expressed concern about added demand on the electric grid. He also said the millions of dollars in grants for electric school buses would be better spent in other ways, including on other environmental goals.
“It seems like it’s the ultimate sort of luxury item, at a time when budgets are stretched pretty thin,” Ready said. “I hate to have to be the Debbie Downer, but you know, it doesn’t seem like a very good use of resources to me, considering the energy crisis that we’re about to face.”
Ready added, “I’m for the air being cleaner and for lower emissions. But again, I think people have to look at the whole picture.”
Sizing up the cost
While several school districts are rolling out buses, the main concerns tend to be cost and infrastructure availability, limiting routes, said Natalie Buscemi, transportation program manager at the Maryland Energy Administration.
The up-front costs for electric school buses are significantly greater than non-electric options. The price range for electric buses is $330,000-$400,000, while gasoline or diesel-powered buses cost $105,000-$215,000, Buscemi said.
But Gander notes that electric buses are cheaper when it comes to maintenance and fuel costs, with around $100,000 in savings over the lifetime of a bus. She said that it’s “critical” to have incentives like government funding to cover the costs, but that “as those buses increase and manufacturing gets to scale, we’re expecting to see those prices come down.”
The Maryland Energy Administration’s Electric School Bus Program rolled out $12 million in grants for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which was used to purchase 53 school buses, Buscemi said. The agency is awarding $17 million in the current fiscal year.
The program covers chargers and technician training, and it can also provide a feasibility study for districts that are considering electric school buses in the future. It also gives preference to applications that come from an overburdened and low- to moderate-income community, she said.
A spokesperson for Baltimore County schools said it is leasing five buses through Highland Electric for a 12-year term. The total cost per bus is $400,000, which includes the full package of the vehicle, charging infrastructure, electricity and maintenance services.
This year, the county secured a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant “to help offset the cost of electrification” for an additional 25 buses.
Prince George’s County is aiming to electrify all its buses by 2040. The county’s most recent climate change action plan states that they were awarded a $2.4 million grant from the Maryland Energy Administration, which will help them acquire as many as eight additional electric buses, bringing their total number of electric buses to 20.
Asked if the cost of electric vehicles in Baltimore City has been worth the investment, school system spokesperson Sherry Christian wrote in an email, “The electric vehicle program remains in the pilot phase and is still being evaluated.” The school system has 25 electric buses and chargers, purchased through an EPA grant totaling $9.4 million, she said.
Operational difficulties
Some Maryland counties have experienced operational or “performance” challenges with their electric school buses.
In Montgomery County, which now has 285 buses — by far the greatest number in the state — a 2024 inspector general’s report states that issues with mechanical and/or charging infrastructure “resulted in buses not being able to run routes on more than 280 instances from February 10, 2022, through March 31, 2024.” Out of those instances, there were 180 times when repairs weren’t made within five working days, averaging out to 13 days per bus. The report also said Montgomery County Public Schools didn’t assess the contractor any fees for these mechanical or charging infrastructure issues.
The inspector general’s report also said the county’s failure to hold the contractor accountable with regard to late deliveries “led to millions of dollars in wasteful spending.”
Asked for comment on the inspector general’s report, MCPS spokesperson Liliana Lopez said in an email, “Our primary focus is ensuring safe, timely and reliable transportation for the more than 103,000 students we serve daily.”
“Current electric bus technology is not fully capable of meeting all of our transportation demands, particularly for longer routes, field trips and mid-day services that exceed charging capacities,” Lopez said. “MCPS continues to have a business relationship with Highland Electric in order to maintain our fleet of 285 electric school buses.”
Montgomery County initially planned to acquire and operate 326 buses.
Lopez said that although the school system is not currently acquiring additional electric buses, it “remains committed to its climate action goals … and those of the county and the state of Maryland, which include reducing greenhouse gas emissions and, for MCPS, transitioning to a fully electric fleet over time.”
Asked about mechanical failures with Baltimore County buses, and whether they occur more or less often compared with non-electric buses, school system spokesperson Gboyinde Onijala wrote in an email, “The integration of new technology inherently introduces operational learning curves. However, the frequency and nature of mechanical issues observed thus far remain within the expected parameters for a new fleet deployment.”
In Howard County, two electric school buses that were purchased by a contractor are no longer in use due to what the contractor described as “performance issues,” according to school system spokesperson Emily Bahhar.
Bahhar said the school system will continue looking for grants after having a potential EPA grant canceled earlier this year, which would have helped three contractors replace their current buses with electric buses.
Electric buses can also encounter difficulties in winter. A recent study by Cornell researchers found that the amount of energy consumed by electric school buses increases 48% in cold temperatures. Buscemi said fleet managers adjust to cold temperatures by using the buses for shorter routes.
There are a number of ways bus operators can adapt to the cold, including preheating the buses so the battery isn’t drained as much, according to Gander, from the Electric School Bus Initiative. She added that states with colder temperatures than Maryland use electric buses.
“Maryland has been a leader, continues to be a leader in this space,” Gander said. “[I’m] really excited about that.”
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