Kings Canyon Unified School District, in California, has ordered four buses from Trans Tech Bus, featuring electric powertrains from Foster City-based Motiv Power Systems. The SST-e, an electric version of Trans Tech’s popular SST model, uses a Ford E450 cutaway chassis equipped with Motiv’s electric Powertrain Control System (ePCS). The SST-e school bus is available with 80 or 100 miles of range, and holds 25 students. The new buses are expected to save the school district over $10,000 a year in fuel and maintenance costs.

Motiv also recently scored a $1.6-million grant from the California Energy Commission to convert older United Parcel Service and US Postal Service medium-duty gas or diesel walk-in vans to use its electric powertrain.

The City of Chicago has ordered up to 20 all-electric Class 8 garbage trucks.

Motiv’s ePCS is designed to make medium- to heavy-duty vehicles all-electric with a variety of commercially-available batteries and motors. The Motiv ePCS is installed as a ship-through modification, enabling electrification with minimal changes between the fossil fuel and electric versions of the vehicles.

“We are answering the call of the transportation industry to build reliable EVs that fit seamlessly into the existing truck and bus manufacturing and service infrastructure,” said Jim Castelaz, Founder and CEO of Motiv Power Systems. “We are absolutely thrilled to see this school bus transporting students without exposing them to diesel exhaust. I hope that by the time my daughter is old enough to go to school, clean, zero-emission school buses like this one will be the industry standard.”

Source: Motiv Power Systems