The State of Electric School Bus Adoption in the US

As of March 2022, 12,275 electric school buses have been committed across 38 US states, with California leading in adoption. While a large portion of these commitments stem from a single 10,000-bus contract between Midwest Transit Equipment and SEA Electric, the report finds that adoption is trending toward historically underserved communities, particularly those with high PM2.5 pollution and high populations of non-white and/or Hispanic people.

• As of March 31, 2022, there were 12,275 committed electric school buses across 415 school districts in 38 US states. This represents a nearly 10-fold increase since tracking began in August 2021.
• A single agreement between bus dealer Midwest Transit Equipment and manufacturer SEA Electric to convert 10,000 school buses to electric over five years accounts for the majority of recent commitments.
• Despite the high number of commitments, only approximately 5% of these buses have been delivered or are currently operational. The average time from the awarding of funds to delivery is about 16 months, though COVID-19 pandemic supply chain issues have caused delays.
• California is the leader in adoption with over 1,000 committed buses, which is three times the amount committed in Maryland, the second-highest state. Additionally, 70% of all delivered and operational electric school buses are located in California.
• The Volkswagen (VW) Settlement is the largest funding source for electric school buses to date, utilized by 26 of the 38 states with commitments. The next four largest funding sources are all based in California.
• Large buses dominate the market, with Type C buses making up 70% of commitments and Type D buses making up 19%. The primary manufacturers are Thomas Built Buses, Blue Bird, and Lion Electric.
• Adoption shows positive trends regarding equity: nearly 80% of electric school buses are in districts with high populations of non-white and/or Hispanic people, and most are in districts with the highest levels of PM2.5 air pollution.

APA

Freehafer, L., & Lazer, L. (2021). The State of Electric School Bus Adoption in the US. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2022-11/electric-school-bus-adoption-insights-june-2022.pdf

Chicago

Freehafer, Lydia, and Leah Lazer. The State of Electric School Bus Adoption in the US. World Resources Institute, 2021. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2022-11/electric-school-bus-adoption-insights-june-2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Freehafer |first1=Lydia |last2=Lazer |first2=Leah |title=The State of Electric School Bus Adoption in the US |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=5 August 2021 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2022-11/electric-school-bus-adoption-insights-june-2022.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{freehafer2021state, author = {Freehafer, Lydia and Lazer, Leah}, title = {{The State of Electric School Bus Adoption in the US}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2021}, month = aug, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2022-11/electric-school-bus-adoption-insights-june-2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }