Until recently, school districts across the country took advantage of the EPA's now-defunct $5 billion Clean School Bus Program to purchase battery-electric school buses to replace aging diesel buses, to varying degrees of success.
After taking delivery of these new zero emission buses, however, some districts faced yet another hurdle: grid connectivity.
Enter L-Charge and its off-grid, ultra-fast EV charger, which has been successfully deployed by the Pontiac, Mich. school district for its new EV bus fleet. The district—Michigan's first to fully replace its diesel buses with EVs—received $15.65 million in EPA grants for the new fleet. Rather than wait for utility upgrades, it turned to L-Charge to handle charging independently.
Pontiac's 40 new electric buses are transporting more than 4,000 students daily, replacing those old diesels that once filled neighborhoods with noise and exhaust. But without off-grid charging, the fleet might have sat idle as utility and construction upgrades lagged behind.
[Related: Thomas Built rolls out its first Type D electric school bus]
"The real bottleneck isn't buses—it's power," said Stephen Kelley, CEO of L-Charge. "Districts everywhere have buses arriving before the grid is ready. Pontiac proves schools don’t have to wait. And our off-grid charging unlocks electrification now."
Each bus is expected to prevent nearly 1,700 tons of CO2 emissions over its lifespan—equivalent to removing 27 cars from the road. The shift also reduces student exposure to diesel exhaust, a pollutant linked to asthma and learning challenges.
"These buses aren't parked waiting on the grid—they're moving students," said Dr. Kimberly Leverette, superintendent of the school district of the City of Pontiac. "Every quiet, fume-free ride is a win for student health, mental well-being, and our community's future."
