The Boulder Valley School District is keeping its goal of having electric buses make up half its fleet, but grants drying up, plus the uncertainty of possible tariff price increases has the school district moving more slowly in replacing diesel buses with pricier electric models.

The school district added its first electric bus to its fleet in 2021 and now has nine, with four more on order. The district is currently replacing buses on about a 20-year-cycle, while about 31% of its 219 buses are older than 15 years.

The ideal mix, Assistant Superintendent of Operations Rob Price said at a recent school board meeting, is 110 electric school buses, 64 propane buses, 30 diesel buses and 15 unleaded gas buses. Going all electric isn’t possible, he noted, because of the distance and terrain of the bus routes in the mountain communities. With current technology, an electric bus can travel about 100 miles before needing to be recharged.

The district’s electric bus plans are based on its climate and clean air goals. Switching half the fleet to electric would reduce the district’s emissions over the next 15 years from 66,000 metric tons to 22,000 metric tons, the same as removing about 9,600 cars from the roads, according to the district’s calculations. Another benefit to electric buses is lower fuel and maintenance costs.

But the high price tag for both the buses and the needed charging infrastructure is slowing the district’s progress.The district estimates it would take around $100 million to replace half its buses with electric models over the next 15 years. The cost estimates include the cost for the buses, electrical charges and infrastructure, midlife battery replacement and maintenance.

Boulder Valley bought its first $380,000 electric bus with the help of a $200,000 ALT Fuels Colorado grant from the Colorado Regional Air Quality Council. Since then, most of it’s other electric buses also were purchased with the help of grants, rebates and company partners.

Price said two state grant programs for electric school buses have both ended, while Xcel Energy’s electric school bus rebates require the district to pay upfront costs before applying. And, while the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program is still technically active, currently promised funding is frozen and there’s no guarantee it will continue under the current administration.

“Relying on federal funds right now is extremely risky,” Price said. “We just don’t know what will happen over the next four years.”

He said both the $400,000 electric-bus price tag and the charging infrastructure costs pose significant challenges.

It takes 18 to 24 months for Xcel to add the needed infrastructure to support charging stations, but to qualify for rebates the energy company will only build enough infrastructure to support the number of electric buses the district has on order, he said. The district currently can charge 13 buses between its Boulder and Lafayette bus terminals.

“Each new bus order restarts that 18-to-24-month process, which significantly slows our ability to scale up with electric buses,” he said. “This process could be done faster and with a lot less cost by scaling up that infrastructure all at once.”

To speed up the replacement of diesel buses with electric, he said, the district could consider asking voters to increase the amount collected through a previously approved transportation mill levy or to include electric bus purchases in the next voter request for a capital construction bond issue.

“We have a community that believes in this work,” he said. “It makes sense to include sustainability in the next bond issue.”

School board members reaffirmed their support for the district’s electric bus goals, but agreed now isn’t the time to try to move faster to meet those goals.

Board member Jason Unger said he would love to electrify the bus fleet tomorrow, but called the cost “eye-opening” and prohibitive given the district’s current limited resources.

Board President Nicole Rajpal agreed, saying uncertainty at the federal level means the district should stick with making small changes, including supporting efforts to increase the number of students walking and biking to school.

She said the district should avoid “committing any dollars or exploring additional dollars until we understand how everything is going to shake out at the state and federal level.”