CT’s 1st Electric School Bus Rolls Out In Middletown

MIDDLETOWN, CT — Connecticut’s first all-electric school bus is now in service in the Middletown Public School District.

The Collins Type A All-Electric School Bus was unveiled at Middletown High School on Monday.

Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said the bus has rolled out in the city thanks to “an amazing partnership” between DATTCO, Inc, Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters (CTLCV), and the City of Middletown and the Middletown Public School district.

“It’s the first one for Middletown and for CT, and we intend to make sure it’s not the last,” Florsheim wrote in a post on Facebook.

WTNH News 8 reports the all-electric bus runs on five sodium chlorine batteries and doesn’t use any diesel or gas. The cost is more than $300,000, about five times more than its counterparts, but officials said it saves money in the long run because of lower maintenance costs and no gas, according to WTNH News 8.

The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters approached DATTCO in 2019 about submitting a grant request to the DEEP’s vehicle diesel electrification project to replace “a polluting diesel school bus” with an electric school bus using Volkswagen settlement funds, according to CTLCV Executive Director Lori Brown.

“We applaud DATTCO, DEEP, and the Middletown School district for working with CTLCV for more than two years to make this significant investment in clean transportation that will protect children from toxic diesel fumes,” Brown said in a news release. “This comes at a critical moment when our state and nation are finally moving in the right direction on climate change and shows what we can do at the local level to protect both our health and our environment.”

She said with transportation accounting for 38 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, “this kind of investment must continue.”

“That is why CT has joined the Transportation and Climate Initiative to dramatically reduce air pollution in our entire region and provide funding for project like this,” she said.