The first thing riders notice on Sioux City’s new electric school buses is what they don’t hear.
“You don’t have the diesel motor, gasoline motor or propane motor noise,” said Doug Stewart, transportation and fleet supervisor for the Sioux City Community School District. "All you have is the electric hum of the motor in the back."
Stewart has been spending some time behind the wheel of the new buses before students jump onboard in the coming days.
"They're very smooth. They ride a lot smoother than the diesel busses because of weight displacement," he said.
In January 2024, the Sioux City Community School District received almost $6 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to buy 15 electric buses, replacing older diesel models. The new buses will make up about a quarter of the district’s fleet. Because of range limitations, they will only show up on local routes.
“The faster you drive it, the harder you drive it, the more battery it uses,” Stewart explained. “If we put it on the highway to try to go to Omaha, even though the mileage says we could get there, we wouldn’t be able to get back. So, it’s 100% going to be for in-town routes.”
Funding for electric buses on hold
The funding for the district's new buses came through the EPA's Clean School Bus Program, which allocated $5 billion nationwide to help schools replace older diesel buses with zero-emission models.
Less than $3 billion has been awarded so far. The EPA said it's reviewing the program under an executive order from President Donald Trump to ensure tax dollars are spent efficiently.
Susan Mudd, senior policy advocate for the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said even with the change, interest in the program remained strong.
“School administrators, parents and public health officials recognize that getting kids out of dirty diesel school buses and into quiet, clean, zero-emission buses is a good thing,” Mudd said.
According to Mudd, some districts that applied for funding early last year remain without awards, and the current administration provided no public accounting of the number of applicants still waiting.
"If the program had run as it had in previous rounds, they would have gotten their awards by May of last year," Mudd said. "So, those school districts, unfortunately, have really been left hanging."
As of last summer, the Environmental Law and Policy Center estimated that at least 46 electric school buses had been funded for 16 Iowa school districts through federal and state dollars.
The state's largest school district, Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS), did not apply for the program.
A DMPS spokesperson said its transportation department had concerns about the practicality of electric buses due to driving patterns, weather conditions and infrastructure. DMPS said it investigated other districts' experiences with the buses and concluded it wasn’t in its interest at this time.
Polarizing viewpoints fuel debate over EV buses
In Sioux City, reactions to the EV fleet have been mixed.
“I’ve heard all sorts of Facebook comments, people either for it or against it,” Stewart said. “It’s pretty polarizing. If you’re a green initiative type of person, you love it. If you’re not, you hate it.”
Some residents also questioned how the buses might perform during Iowa winters.
Tim Paul, the district’s director of operations and maintenance, said diesel buses often require extra attention in extreme cold, with mechanics arriving at 3 a.m. to ensure the vehicles start.
“Diesel buses never really warm up in the winter,” Paul said. “They’re just really hard to get the temperatures up for our students, and if it's too cold, school gets canceled anyway."
Charging times also vary with the weather. At about 72 degrees, buses can be fully charged within two to three hours. When temperatures fall below 20 degrees, it can take up to 10 hours.
“We don’t run school buses after 5 p.m., so we have until 6 the next morning to get them ready,” Stewart said.
The district chose second-generation electric buses equipped with air conditioning — a feature Stewart called essential in Iowa.
The cost and reward for the school district
A standard diesel bus costs about $170,000, according to Paul. The new electric buses, with air conditioning and camera systems, cost roughly $400,000 each.
Under the terms of the federal grant, the district must retire one diesel bus for every electric bus purchased. Paul said buses built before 2010 need to be destroyed — newer models can be resold.
During the test phase, Stewart said the district spent about $90 on electricity compared with an estimated $650 in diesel fuel.
“In that short time, we’ve reduced carbon emissions by about 1,600 pounds of CO2,” Stewart said, citing program estimates. “That’s like a 1,700-mile trip in a passenger vehicle. It takes 35 to 40 trees to absorb that much CO2.”
For Stewart, the benefits go beyond the balance sheet.
“It’s much cleaner for the environment,” he said. “It’s more comfortable for the driver, and I think it’s going to be a much better experience for the students.”
