Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire New Electric Vehicles Saving Havre Montana Residents Big $'s

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Jan 26, 2024
HAVRE — In January of 2023, Havre Public Schools added two electric school buses to their fleet.

The two buses in the Havre Public Schools' fleet are entirely electric, becoming the first fully-electric buses to be used in Montana according to service attendant Allen "Woody" Woodwick.

He says it was about a year's process, after HPS was awarded a grant for two buses, and they have proven to be efficient.

The grant, from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, provided most of the funding. Woodwick said the grant came from a settlement with Volkswagen and HPS payed about $120,000 out of their pocket for the buses, while the grant covered the other 85% of the cost.

"That's less than the price of one diesel bus," Woodwick said. "They're going around 130,000 to 140,000 dollars for a diesel bus."



After a year of operation, Havre Public Schools are pleased with how they have performed, even in extreme weather such as the sub-zero stretch earlier this month.

"It only takes a few hours to get a full charge. No oil changes, no transmission filter for flushes, they don't go through as many brakes," Woodwick explained. "They have auxiliary heaters so they've stayed warm through when it was 30 below. And when we had a lot of problems with our diesel busses gelling up and freezing up, these didn't. 

“They do very well,” Woody Woodwick, the Service Attendant for Havre Public Schools said, “They stay warm, and they have a great traction control system, so they're very surefooted on the ice.”
In the year that the buses have been in service, they have required very little maintenance, helped in large part because they do not require engine maintenance.

“That's one of the big cost savings, is there's no oil change, there's no transmission flush,” Woodwick said, “And there is a little bit of grease involved because it has regular driveshaft, regular bearings and regular bus wheels and everything like that, but just virtually none of the engine maintenance.”

The buses also save on brakes via regenerative braking. When slowing down, the motors run backward, causing less wear on the brake pads and generating energy back into the vehicle for more use.

The vehicles have performed well enough that Havre is working to add two more electric buses to their fleet.

“We’re in the process of doing two more right now,” Woodwick said, “Two more on the ground… I don’t see a full fleet of them right now. Our fleet is a mixture of gasoline, diesel and electric. And then four coach buses for down the road for the long trips. But it's just a good tool to have in the toolbox.”

Driving through the deep snow does take off some distance, but Woodwick feels that it is not any different from a gas-powered vehicle using more fuel to power through snow.

Furthermore, the electric buses are noticeably cheaper per mile.

“The diesel busses are going down the road for about $0.56 a mile,” Woodwick said, “Our gasoline busses are close to $0.80 a mile. And these are about $0.23 a mile.”

Pat Trumpour drives the rural route and has been driving for about seven years. He said over the phone that his biggest question going in was the differences between electric and a normal bus. He's found very little difference thus far.

"Very little difference as far as driving it," Trumpour said. "There's a lot of the same as the regular bus. I like it. It's certainly quieter. Works just as well as diesel. It's got as much power, at least as much, if not more than some of them. They're definitely a lot cheaper to run."

"We've had a handful of other other towns get a hold of us and ask us how they're doing. So far, we've we've had good responses with them and so far they're working out good. And I think we'll see a bunch more of them."

I am suspicious of this claim.

They don't go fast enough to need much braking power lol

And when the battery dies and 30 kids freeze?

And when the battery needs replaced and it costs 50k?

And when the grants stop and they have to pay for the whole bus?

Dumbasses.

I know Woody.

He is a pretty good bass player...but a bigger leftist you will not meet.


Not saying he is bullshitting us...but I am always a bit skeptical of him.

It's damn hard to find a conservative bass player these days.

This

how long do schools keep a diesel bus in service? Over 200K miles?

I like Woodys ZZ Top beard.

reading up on it, looks like in general a diesel will have a 12-15 life and around 250K miles.

I doubt current battery technology will last that long

I would be more receptive if electric didn't deserve an excessive celebration penalty every time it didn't explode or catch fire.

Act like ya been there before electric.....

If you think that you are too ignorant of how electric motors work to be of any value in this thread.

So it's "cheaper" because they only paid for 15% of it? Meaning the rest of us paid for the other 85%.
It's no wonder our .gov educational system is an international joke.

I didn’t catch the range.

We're about to see way more Electric School Buses

Here's why, according to Car and Driver..

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43795823/electric-school-buses-latest-details/

And there's the catch, bend the #'s to match the agenda.

The brake thing is real, they have "auxiliary " heaters , which do not use the batteries, The buses must cost around 600000 dollars , so at.23$ savings per mile it would take just 2 million miles to break even.

I believe that part, when you turn an electric motor into a generator it'll act like a jake brake on a diesel by providing resistance to the wheels.

I certainly do not believe the cost per mile #'s.

I noticed auxiliary heaters for winter (buddy?). Regular busses for road trips.

So without the gift it would have cost US $800 000.00 for the two buses...sounds like .23 cents per mile is stretching the truth somewhat.

At 200 000 mile life span that is US $2.00 per mile each vehicle without running costs. Want to take a guess on whether they will reach 200 000 miles each.