Most are familiar with Blue Bird's lineup of school buses. Many of us probably even took one to school back in the day. But now, the nearly 100-year-old company has expanded its product portfolio to include medium-duty step vans aimed directly at delivery fleets.
What's different about these step vans compared to others? One is all-electric and the other propane-powered.
We spoke to Blue Bird's Andy Moore, director of commercial chassis, at this year's ACT Expo in Anaheim, California to learn more about these two last-mile delivery vehicles.
Having a choice between a 140 kWh battery with up to 130 miles of range on a single charge or a Ford-sourced 7.3-liter V8 equipped with an OEM-installed fuel system delivering over 200 miles of range provides fleets with two solid choices instead of conventional diesel.
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Jay Traugott
Bluebird, best known for building school busses for nearly a century, is now entering the medium duty step van market with an all electric model and a propane powered version at Expo 2025. I spoke with any more to learn more about these two step then options, and the features Bluebird is bringing to make them stand out in a very competitive market.
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Jay Traugott
And for the latest in EV step, then news, sign up for our weekly newsletter using the link in the description below.
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Andy Moore
So the vehicle you're seeing here. The body was built by our partner, Morgan Olson, who does a lot in this space in the step van space. But the stuff that we do is underneath. So underneath the body on this is a 178 inch wheelbase, pure EV chassis, zero emissions. It has 140 kilowatt hour battery, which is good for about 130 miles.
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Andy Moore
So some of the things that we're doing unique on the EV side is that we have a 55 degree wheel cut, which is, industry leading. We look at it, which helps with, inter-city routes, navigating those tight city corners, tight cul de sacs for delivery vehicles, those kind of things. Something else that we've got a few safety features is a hill hold function that prevents the vehicle from rolling back or forward if you're on a hill, as well as, what we call a creep function.
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Andy Moore
So an EV will function when the driver lets off the brake pedal, it'll slowly creep forward. So it has that same pedal feel is like a typical internal combustion engine vehicle.
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Jay Traugott
Now, what sets us apart from some of its direct competitors? This is starting to get to be, kind of a crowded segment, the medium duty stuff in markets. What makes it.
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Andy Moore
Unique? I think one of the things that that we really bring to this is that we are an established OEM. Like I said, we've been here for almost 100 year building school busses we've designed and then building our own chassis for our school busses since 1952. And we're really leveraging that experience in the commercial space.
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Jay Traugott
So that means if there are ever any mechanical issues damages, the customer's always have a.
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Andy Moore
Parent company absolute.
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Jay Traugott
Go to an established one.
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Andy Moore
Absolutely. So we've put over 2500 electric school busses on the road. And when we talk about propane, we've put over 23,000 propane vehicles, school busses on the road. So we have a lot of experience. We know how to, take care of our customers, which is why we've been here for 100 years now.
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Jay Traugott
This is coming to market very soon, correct?
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Andy Moore
Yeah. So we're looking to go to market first quarter of next calendar year. So in first quarter 2026. So we did introduce this chassis a year ago at Act okay as well. But a big one that we'll talk about in a second this year is our propane variation of this. Okay.
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Jay Traugott
Actually, you know, let's take a look at it here. All right Andy. So behind us here is a stripped chassis with a propane tank. Tell me more about it.
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Andy Moore
Yeah. So this is our propane variation. The tank you see is 45 usable gallons, which, depending on route and kind of duty cycle, can get the operator over 200 miles. It's kind of a we're estimating, which is more than enough to cover most, vehicle routes in the, the delivery van space.
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Jay Traugott
I'm very curious what kind of engine is this right here.
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Andy Moore
So we're using Ford's proven V8 7.3l engine. We've put a lot of those in our school bus and as well as, a lot of the vehicles across the country.
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Jay Traugott
Now, what kind of customer would be going for the propane version as opposed to maybe a battery electric?
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Andy Moore
A lot of it comes down to customer needs. It comes down to infrastructure needs. I know that a lot of EV infrastructure, there's a long time horizon on getting that put in the ground. There's a lot of challenges with that. So we like to offer our customers options. As I've mentioned, that we've put 23,000 propane school busses on the road.
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Andy Moore
And so along with that, aside from just selling the school bus, we've worked a lot with propane fuel providers to provide that infrastructure, help the customers make the transition to, alternative fuel.
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Jay Traugott
Okay. And both vehicles are going to be in all 50 states, or is it going to be a state by state case? Yeah.
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Andy Moore
So we will be offering this across the US. So any customer in Canada, one of the great things about propane is that it operates in a wide range of temperatures. So especially when you get into the northern US and Canada, when the temperatures can drop to -40, the propane fuel system with our partners roust it can fire up at -40.
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Jay Traugott
And sometimes with a with a battery. When you hit those really cool temperatures, you're going to.
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Andy Moore
Lose some range. You definitely lose range on the EV, right? Another thing that I do want to point out is that our propane is an OE installed fuel system. So there has been propane systems, currently in the space, but pretty much all of those have been updated. So customers buy a gas powered chassis, then work with an up fitter to convert the fuel system.
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Andy Moore
This is going to come off of our line as a propane powered system. It's on sale now and going into production, first quarter of next year.
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Jay Traugott
So you're already accepting orders?
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Andy Moore
We are definitely accepting orders.
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Jay Traugott
Excellent. Well, thank you very much, everyone. Thank you very much for watching. And if you have any more questions, please leave them in the comments and we'll get back to you.
