Well the subsidies lower the cost for at least the first few vehicles. But that doesn't necessarily make it affordable.

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The bigger problem right now is the infrastructure and restructuring of how operations work.

i.e. lots of districts use buses during the day for schools, then in the evening for other things like sports, and even overnight for senior citizen activities. It's pointless to have separate vehicles for all of these tasks, especially when some school buses now are handicapped accessible. One vehicle, and just have different drivers since obviously you can't have someone drive 18hrs a day. It makes sense, it saves money. Some towns even use school buses for moving their employees between job sites. No point having a fleet of vans just for that task. Lots of these trips are quick. Having rarely used vehicles is a waste of money.

Same reasons towns love those garbage trucks that double as snow plows. One vehicle, multiple tasks. They're nice and heavy so they are good in big storms too.

But for an electric bus, you kinda need 2 vehicles for stuff like this. They can't be quickly gassed up. They need to sit and charge overnight. And charging facilities. And staff that are trained to service/inspect them. And until you do a complete fleet replacement, you need staff that can still service ICE vehicles. That's more duplication. You've also need supply chain for both.

This is a key reason why PA was keen on a big order of cars and replacing the whole fleet. Rather than do various orders/models. It saves them money long term having one model, one set of training for employees, you can use parts between them, swap them out for each other, etc. etc.

I'd predict you'll see more adoption in really rural places that provide minimal services before suburbs. The ones that own a dozen or less buses, only use them for school, and nothing more because the government provides no other services. Even rural distances are within range, and it's a perfect match.

But in urban/suburban areas, school buses are kind of abused as multi-purpose township vehicles that just so happen to also take kids to school.

It's okay we can just shake the money tree, aka homeowners /s