USA  – American school bus manufacturer, Blue Bird Corp, based in Macon, Georgia and San Francisco, California’s Generate Capital have established a joint venture called Clean Bus Solutions, to help school districts finance the purchase of new electric school buses, through an electrification-as-a-service package. This will allow school districts to pay a set fee per month as a way of procuring electric buses, making electric school buses more affordable and available to U.S. school districts. The service also includes charging solutions, maintenance and fleet planning services.

Due to the EPA’s USD 5 billion Clean School Bus Rebate Program, demand for electric school buses has risen dramatically in the USA over the last 18 months. This is all very positive news for Blue Bird, which recently increased its production capacity to 5,000 electric school buses per year, having opened the ‘Electric Vehicle Build-up Centre’ at the company’s primary U.S. production facility in Fort Valley, Georgia, in August 2023. Blue Bird Corporation anticipates growing demand for electric school buses as districts replace their old-generation ICE vehicles with new zero-emission alternatives.