[Breitbart] School districts throughout the United States are ditching electric school buses, manufactured by a Canadian company that has fallen into bankruptcy, for diesel school buses, citing the difficulty in getting electric buses repaired.
The return to diesel school buses comes as Quebec-based Lion Electric, which the Biden administration awarded $159 million “to manufacture 435 school buses between 2022 and 2024,” has fallen into bankruptcy, according to the Washington Free Beacon. As a result, the company has “warned school districts that its dire financial straits prevent it from servicing” the electric school buses.
Several superintendents explained to the outlet that while they would try to keep the “electric fleet” of school buses operating “for as long as possible,” they would eventually have to “return to diesel” due to diesel school buses being more affordable.
“We are going to keep our electric fleet on the roads for as long as possible,” Mike Leskowich, who serves as the superintendent of the Homer Community School District in Michigan, told the outlet. Leskowich’s school district “received $2.8 million in federal funding to procure seven Lion buses in 2022.”
“Eventually, however, we will return to diesel, as the cost of the vehicle is far less than electric,” Leskowich added.
Charlie Butler, who serves as the superintendent of a Louisiana school district, told the outlet that while the “14 Lion buses his district received are still new,” he is having difficulty finding “companies that can repair them.”
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