Two new, fully electric buses will operate in Nanaimo's north end and between Ladysmith and North Oyster beginning in late May. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

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NANAIMO — Three new fully electric school buses will be buzzing kids to and from school across the mid-Island.

School District 68, serving Nanaimo and Ladysmith, debuted their two new buses on Thursday, May 6 while School District 69 in Parksville-Qualicum purchased one. Route six in Nanaimo’s north end and between Ladysmith and North Oyster will be served by the new SD68 buses.

The vehicles are part of a larger provincial movement to electrify school bus fleets and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. Eighteen buses were purchased by 13 districts with provincial funding.

“We expect it will result in a net savings to the point where they’d be competitive with diesel buses or better,” Pete Sabo, SD68 executive director of planning and operations, said. “As technology matures, ranges get better, buses get more reliable, we learn more about them.”

The two new buses are expected to save around $20,000 annually in fuel and maintenance costs.

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They are stored and charged nightly at the bus yard behind the district office on Wakesiah Ave. and have a range of approximately 215 kilometres per charge. The charging infrastructure installed can be scaled up to 10 buses.

Each vehicle is outfitted with an external speaker system which plays music under a certain speed as a safety feature to replace the noise generated by a diesel bus engine.

Dave Prevost, SD68 manager of transportation, said they’re expected to begin service on either May 17 or 25 depending on training and refits.

“The big difference for us is they roll. They’re not like a car where if you stop at a light the transmission holds you in place, these don’t,” Prevost said. “It’s pretty much a two foot stop with these buses at this point so retraining our drivers is going to be very important.”

Both buses operating in Nanaimo and Ladysmith are also outfitted with seatbelts, along with internal and external cameras.

The two buses for SD68 take its daily fleet to 29 vehicles.

SD68 signed onto a pilot project to test the new configurations for a full school year. They were originally slated to arrive in January.

The buses costs around $350,000 each with the ministry of education picking up much of the tab. The government’s bus acquisition program ponied up $13 million to buy 101 buses, including the 18 electric vehicles.

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alex.rawnsley@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley