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Hybrid Conversion Kit Would Turn Yellow Buses Green
Jan 06 2009 by Sara Lacey
School buses are notorious gas-guzzlers, but an Illinois company is working on a conversion kit to turn those yellow buses into green plug-in hybrids.
Why convert? It’s cheaper than buying a new hybrid bus. Hybrid buses cost $170,000 apiece (at 450,000 school buses nationwide, that’s a hefty hit to the pocketbook), according to Wired magazine’s blog. Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies is developing a hybrid conversion kit for buses that costs $80,000, which would help those of us in districts with less disposable income. Oh wait, that’s all of us.
What does the kit get you? Well, you get a 35 kilowatt-hour battery pack that powers the converted bus for 15 miles on a four-hour charge, after which it can run on its gas engine. My son’s school bus driver would probably need to plug in the converted bus after the morning drop-off if going it alone on the electric charge. The converted bus will get a boost in fuel economy from about 6 mpg to 16 mpg, and it’ll reduce CO2 emissions by nine tons a year, says Ali Emadi, Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies’ founder.
While $80,000 is a lot of money, the price will come down as technology improves, Emadi says in the Wired article. In addition, he says that hopefully they’ll be able to sell the converter to vehicle manufacturers, which would bring the cost down for everybody. So, how long will it be before everyone gets on board the big green bus?
