What you need to know:
- Blue Bird recently delivered 25 Vision electric school buses to Arkansas' Little Rock School District, increasing their electric bus fleet to about 70 units.
- The district transports 19,000 students daily and received a nearly $9.9 million EPA grant through the Clean School Bus Program to fund its EV fleet purchase.
- Blue Bird, with nearly 100 years in bus manufacturing, contrasts with Lion Electric (now called LION), a Canadian startup facing bankruptcy and safety issues.
- The EPA referred inquiries about Lion Electric to the DOJ due to possible pending litigation; no official DOJ investigation announced yet.
Blue Bird continues to succeed where now-bankrupt Lion Electric failed.
[Related: School districts reveal technical, safety issues with Lion Electric EV buses]
The longtime U.S.-based manufacturer of school buses recently announced the delivery of 25 examples of the Vision electric bus to Arkansas' Little Rock School District (LRSD), the third largest school district in the state.
The district already operates over 40 buses used to transport its 19,000 students to and from school. This latest batch of brand-new zero-emission buses will bring that total bus count up to approximately 70 units.
These Vision Electric buses will travel about 1,400 miles daily as they bring 500 students to and from school.
The district confirmed it received a $9,875,000 grant through the EPA's $5 billion Clean School Bus Program to purchase its EV bus fleet.
"This is more than just adding new buses—it's about doing what's right for our kids and our community," said Dr. Jermall D. Wright, superintendent of the Little Rock School District. "We're proud to introduce Blue Bird's electric school buses as a step toward a cleaner, healthier future. Every mile these buses travel means less pollution, cleaner air, and a stronger commitment to the well-being of our students and the neighborhoods we serve."
A key advantage school districts have by switching from traditional diesel-powered to electric buses is a reduction in energy costs. For example, districts running these buses have reported paying just 19 cents per mile compared to 79 cents per mile with diesels.
It also matters which EV bus company school districts chose to do business with.
Blue Bird vs. Lion Electric
The Vision Electric, along with the RE Electric, are both battery-electric school buses manufactured by Blue Bird and are actively marketed to schools. Unlike startup Lion Electric (now renamed 'LION'), Blue Bird has nearly a century's worth of bus building experience.
Lion Electric, on the other hand, has been and continues to be problematic.
As Clean Trucking previously reported, nearly 2,000 Lion Electric school buses in the U.S. lost their manufacturer warranties last summer following the company's bankruptcy and reorganization earlier this year. Shortly before that, Lion permanently halted production at its 900,000-square-foot factory in Joliet, Illinois.
[Related: U.S. schools' Lion Electric bus warranties 'null and void', Quebec coverage unchanged]
The NHTSA has issued several safety recalls for the LionC school bus, specifically for parking brake malfunctions, high-voltage system failures, and reversed brake connections. One school district told us "the electric infrastructure cannot heat the bus when external temperatures are below 35 degrees Fahrenheit." Lion's solution, a technician-installed auxiliary diesel heater, also failed.
School districts in both the U.S. and Canada have been forced to remove Lion-built buses from their fleets due to these safety concerns, resulting in older diesel buses being forced back into service.
Meanwhile, Quebec school districts' warranties remain unaffected. Why? Because Lion Electric/LION was and still remains a Quebec-based company.
The EPA previously referred Clean Trucking to the Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs regarding Lion Electric, citing possible 'pending litigation,' and stated it has nothing further to add. To date, the DOJ has not announced any investigation into the former Lion Electric or any of its executives.
According to Axios, nearly 14,000 electric school buses are accounted for across the U.S.—either funded, ordered, or already delivered—with 5,300 of them currently in operation.
