Posted on 02/23/2024 9:05:34 AM PST by george76
Maine’s Department of Education is reportedly urging school districts to stop using taxpayer-subsidized electric school buses that were purchased within the last year.
The districts reported problems with the new buses, which were supplied by Canada-based Lion Electric Co., last fall ... The windshields on the buses would leak whenever it rained, as the glass didn’t appear to be securely in place.
concerns about mixing electricity and water from the leaking windshields led them to stop driving some of the buses.
The buses, which cost about $345,000 each, were also sold with misaligned or incorrect lettering on the sides, and other districts have reported broken rivets on the bodies of the vehicles.
Josh Wheeler, the transportation director for Winthrop Public Schools, said at a school board meeting that a failure in one bus’s power steering and braking forced him to drive the bus into a snowbank to avoid crashing into traffic. No children were on the bus at the time, but the incident has prompted the state to take action.
The Maine Department of Education is now advising school districts to take the Lion buses off the road until the state can inspect them.
Three of the four Winthrop buses were sent to Canada for repairs, and another was sent to Louisiana for a full inspection. The company is paying the district’s rental fees while the buses are being repaired.
The reports from state inspections, CentralMaine.com reported, show the buses indicate the kind of wear and tear found on older buses with higher mileage. WGME reports that the inspections initially found “minor defects,” but inspections earlier this month found the Winthrop buses’ brake lines were corroded and rubbing together.
One school district covering the towns of Bingham and Moscow reported no problems with their electric bus. The bus has been driven about 3,000 miles, according to WGME, and it passed its state inspection.
Nate Baguio, Lion’s senior vice president of commercial development, told Just The News that the company has sold over 1,600 vehicles in North America, with over 19 million road miles driven on them.
Baguio said, while he didn’t want to trivialize the issues they’re having, they are limited to two school districts, and the company is working to address those issues. “We do take responsibility for these vehicles working properly, and I think we've more than done that here. And we'll continue to do that,” Baguio said.
The company has sent service people to the districts, he said, and brought the buses back to the factory to do a comprehensive inspection.
The buses were purchased through grants received from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. Over five years, the program is providing $5 billion to replace existing school buses with zero- and low-emission models. So far, the program has made 439 awards to 642 school districts, replacing 5,103 buses, according to the EPA.
The program comes on the heels of the Proterra debacle. Cities across the U.S. purchased hundreds of electric buses from Silicon Valley-based Proterra.
The company went bankrupt in August, having sold 550 buses over its 19-year existence. In the wake of its bankruptcy, the company left a trail of inoperable buses that can’t be repaired because the company can’t supply the parts or the technicians to address a range of issues.
In April 2021, Joe Biden took a virtual tour of a Proterra facility, using it to promote his infrastructure plan, which included approximately $6.5 billion in grants, according to the Wall Street Journal, to help replace diesel-powered school and transit buses with electric vehicles. Despite all the issues with Proterra, the Biden administration charged forward with its electric school bus program, announcing in January $1 billion to 67 applicants.
Baguio said the buses that Lion produces are different from those that Proterra sold.
Maine plans to transition 75% of its public-school bus fleet to all-electric buses by 2035. To receive the taxpayer-funded buses, each district had to trade in one of their diesel buses for each electric bus received, according to WGME.
EV Lemons
The New buses can only carry 3 students due to weight limits being nearly exceeded by the batteries- (I joke, but I wonder if weight limits are being exceeded? Also- enjoy freezing cold rides to school on winter days )
The wankers who push rechargeable school buses, and showering federal confetti bucks to buy them, what a racket.
At least little Timmy knows how to give a good blowjob, so they got that goin’ for them.
I confess, I’ve never been to Maine. I hear it’s lovely in the summer, but I suspect it gets pretty nippy in the winter. And I’ve been told that lots of Maine is pretty rural, so busses have to travel long distances.
Are electric busses good at long distances in the cold? But hey, the kids don’t have to breathe the diesel fumes—or go to school if the busses aren’t running.
They are ‘defective’ only if you expect them to work just like ICE busses...............
10% for the big guy.
There are going to be a lot of kids stranded on broken down buses in rural Maine in the middle of winter.
You don’t need a crystal ball to see that one coming....
Public schools are child abuse.
Are electric busses good at long distances in the cold?
Needs heaters, defrosters on windows.. reduces the range.
The EV scam has been easily foisted upon the weak minded. To everyone else it was just another conspiracy theory, right? EVs are certainly fine in limited, specific situations, but beyond this niche, EVs are little more than fools gold, and it’s pretty easy to be a fool spending other people’s money.
Conservative solution: Abandon failed programs.
Liberal solution: Continue failed programs. “Because this time it will be different.”
State of Maine should have done the inspections on these buses BEFORE they bought them. Might have saved all involved a lot of problems. Having lived in northern Maine for a couple of winters,I am wondering how the buses might perform at the below zero temperatures.
EV’s DOA.
More stupid and probably unconstitutional state (federal?) government (probably) illegally at work...
But the electric drivetrain is flawless!! And these buses do not spontaneously combust, either.
The good news is that this sign-painter landed a new gig painting school buses...
Donate them all to the homeless and illegals.
They are not just taxpayer subsidized they are taxpayer bought.
EPA provides $5 Billion for the purchase of ev buses .. to meet the agency’s goal of making 75% of the public school bus fleet electric by 2035.
While Winthrop School District waits for repairs, Lion Electric Co. is paying $15,000 for the district’s transportation department to rent two diesel school buses.
Exactly, there is a difference between defective and tech that simply will not work in the context you put it in. Putting EV Buses in cold climates is the latter. By saying they are “defective” you are obscuring the truth and that is done intentionally.
NOW!!!!!
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