WINTHROP, Maine — Winthrop Public Schools is working to get its electric school buses back on the road after dealing with malfunctions and safety concerns.
In 2022, several Maine school districts were awarded grants to purchase electric school buses through the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean School Bus Program.
While the buses have been reliable for some districts, like MSAD 13, the Bingham-Moscow district, for others like Winthrop, they have had mechanical problems.
Winthrop Public Schools received four electric school buses in June 2023.
“We thought it was really exciting, I mean, it was really cool,” Joshua Wheeler, director of transportation for Winthrop Public Schools, said.
But as the months passed, issues began to arise, leading to concerns over reliability and safety.
“Our confidence is waning in these particular buses,” Becky Foley, superintendent of Winthrop Public Schools, said.
The most serious incident happened last December when one of the buses shut down during a route. The driver and the students in the bus were not injured. When Wheeler attempted to drive the bus back to the school, the problem happened again.
“Put it off into the side of the road into a snowbank to help bring me to a stop before I came into an intersection,” Wheeler said.
Since that incident, the buses have been out of service. They were sent back to the manufacturer, Lion Electric, for repairs but still failed inspections.
After additional fixes, the buses are improved but still experienced issues.
The school board voted to put one of the buses back on the road, but after test driving two of the buses, they’re still malfunctioning.
This also comes as Lion Electric faces financial challenges, having temporarily laid off 400 employees this month. Wheeler said this has made it harder to get timely support.
“I do think that some of the issues we're seeing here are manufacturer specific,” Wheeler said.
Lion Electric did not respond to requests for comment.
Despite the ongoing challenges, Winthrop remains committed to electric vehicles. Schools that receive buses through the Clean School Bus Program must use them for at least five years, so school leaders are not giving up.
“We believe in electric buses, and we want to be using them, and that's really our hope, is to have them on the road,” Foley said.
This week, Wheeler said they are attempting for the third time to get one of the electric buses back into operation.