Navistar’s IC Bus to deliver 18 electric school buses in British Columbia
IC Bus, a school bus manufacturer owned by Navistar, has secured an order for 18 Type C electric school buses to be delivered to 14 school districts in British Columbia.
“We are very happy to announce the first order of our electric CE school bus,” said IC Bus VP Trish Reed. “Electric is an exciting opportunity for IC Bus and we look forward to expanding our presence following this initial purchase.”
“Electric school buses are the natural next step towards zero greenhouse gases for the future of the children we serve,” said Robyn Stephenson, Manager of Transportation Services at School District No. 22 in Vernon, BC. “IC Bus was able to provide a terrific product and the support necessary to help us achieve our sustainability goals.”
Over the past 18 months, IC Bus and NEXT (Navistar’s eMobility business unit) have been consulting with a group of transportation supervisors in British Columbia to obtain real-world operational data, route profiles and climate data. “The transportation supervisors offered us unique insight by sharing their operational wants and needs while keeping in perspective the very diverse climate they work in, which will serve as a model for most of North America,” said Joel Landry of Western Canada Bus, the IC Bus dealer that’s working with the school districts. “From mountain ranges to the coastal rainforest and the Okanagan desert, British Columbia presented a perfect challenge for the engineers, which will benefit us moving forward.”
The consultations made it clear that the school districts would require charging infrastructure guidance. NEXT’s charging solutions team will provide site planning services to each of the school districts, covering what the company calls “the four Cs”—Consulting, Constructing, Charging and Connecting.
IC Bus will begin delivery of the electric buses in 2021.
Source: Navistar
