One of America's first all-electric school buses is making its debut in San Diego County.
The 48-seat bus is part of a state pilot program to introduce school districts to clean energy bus fleets.
Robert Berkstresser is transportation director for Escondido Union School District. He says the 40-foot-long bus is very quiet and can travel 60 miles per charge.
“We're only running it in the morning. It's gotten a lot of good reviews from the driver and the students actually enjoy it. As opposed to running a diesel engine in the morning on the same route, it's about half the cost in energy," Berkstresser said. "It costs us about $8 to recharge it enough to run it for this particular route and if we were running a diesel school bus on this route it would probably run us about $19 to $21.”
After Escondido, the bus will be tested in other San Diego County school districts. The overall push is to reduce harmful diesel fuel emissions at schools.
