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METRO introducing electric buses in Houston, here’s where they’ll be

Ahmed Humble , Digital Content Producer

HOUSTON – As changes to improve transportation services for riders, Houston METRO announced passengers on two bus routes will be piloting a new service with electric buses.

In a press release, METRO announced the changes have already been made for the 402 Bellaire Quickline, with an all-electric fleet to replace the aging buses. This route serves the Southwest Houston, Bellaire , and Gulfton areas , running from Chinatown to the Medical Center.

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The 28-OST on Wayside, METRO claims, already has at least five electric buses in its fleet, serving neighborhoods like Fifth Ward .

METRO Board Chair Elizabeth Block called the move a significant step to improve service reliability for low-income and minority communities.

“These improvements are an investment in our customers. The new electric buses meet our broader goals of ensuring the system is accessible, equitable, and helps us close environmental justice gaps,” Brock said in a press statement. “Both routes service some communities that include minority, low-income, and transit-dependent populations. It is so important we provide these customers with an easy and safe choice that they will be excited to ride.”

Aside from creating a more environmentally friendly transit system, the buses’ new features will include USB charging ports, three wheelchair securement areas, and additional spaces for people with disabilities.

METRO says it already operates more than 400 clean-running hybrid buses, but a grant by the Federal Transit Administration will ensure 20 electric buses , and 14 hydrogen fuel cell electric buses in total in the coming years.

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Learn more about METRO’s electric buses by clicking here.

Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.

About the Author

Ahmed humble.

Historian, educator, writer, expert on "The Simpsons," amateur photographer, essayist, film & tv reviewer and race/religious identity scholar. Joined KPRC 2 in Spring 2024 but has been featured in various online newspapers and in the Journal of South Texas' Fall 2019 issue.

Electric Buses

Electric school buses.

• MAN Truck & Bus

Belgian bus operator Hansea to add 181 MAN electric buses to existing fleet

Belgian private bus operator Hansea already has 90 electric city buses in its fleet – and last week, the company announced plans to add 181 more electric buses by the end of 2025.

Hansea’s electric bus success story began back in 2021, when VW-owned heavy truck brand MAN released the Lion’s City E Coach model (yes, there’s an apostrophe in the model’s name ). The buses continue to deliver on the electric promise of cleaner air and lower cost running for the fleet operator, which has prompted Hansea to ramp up its e-bus orders.

“Sustainability is a key issue for us as well as for MAN. The order is definitely a milestone that confirms our joint commitment to sustainability,” says Joris Larosse, CEO from Hansea. “Our goal is to fully electrify our entire bus fleet by 2035. We have relied on MAN to convert our fleet right from the start. Over the last ten years, we have developed a trusted partnership based on intense professional cooperation.”

Hansea is ordering 10, 12, and 18-meter variants in the Lion’s City E, enabling Hansea to use the new bus fleet in a wide range of local and long-distance bus routes throughout Flanders .

Hansea also operates electric school buses , electric employee shuttles, and chartered electric coach services across the nation. MAN says it will deliver all of the 181 new electric buses by the end of 2025.

“With this new order, the Hansea fleet will grow to over 270 MAN eBuses, making it the largest zero-emission bus fleet in Belgium,” says Barbaros Oktay, Head of Bus at MAN Truck & Bus. “We are incredibly proud that Hansea has once again opted for our eBus. The order clearly shows how satisfied Hansea is with our Lion’s City E and that it is proving its worth day after day.”

Electrek’s Take

Replacing diesels with electric vehicles in heavily populated areas has solid, observable, measurable benefits – not just in terms of cost, but in terms of reducing surface-level air pollution and improving overall quality of life. There’s absolutely no way to justify another alternative at this point, especially hydrogen.

Don’t take my word for it, though. MAN’s own CEO says it’s “ impossible ” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and he also sells hydrogen trucks !

SOURCE | IMAGES : MAN , via Sustainable Bus .

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I’ve been in and around the auto industry since the 90s, and have written for a number of well-known outlets like CleanTechnica, the Truth About Cars, Popular Mechanics, and more. You can catch me on The Heavy Equipment Podcast with Mike Switzer, the AutoHub Show with Ian and Jeff, or chasing my kids around Oak Park, IL.

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Oakland’s new school buses don’t just reduce pollution — they double as giant batteries

A new fleet of buses can send power back to the grid, stabilizing it instead of straining it..

The wheels on this bus do indeed go round and round. Its wipers swish. And its horn beeps. Hidden in its innards, though, is something special — a motor that doesn’t vroom but pairs with a burgeoning technology that could help the grid proliferate with renewable energy.

These new buses, developed by a company called Zum, ride clean and quiet because they’re fully electric. With them, California’s Oakland Unified School District just became the first major district in the United States to transition to 100 percent electrified buses. The vehicles are now transporting 1,300 students to and from school, replacing diesel-chugging buses that pollute the kids’ lungs and the neighborhoods with particulate matter. Like in other American cities, Oakland’s underserved areas tend to be closer to freeways and industrial activity, so air quality in those areas is already terrible compared to the city’s richer parts.

Pollution from buses and other vehicles contributes to chronic asthma among students, which leads to chronic absenteeism. Since Oakland Unified only provides bus services for its special-need students, the problem of missing school for preventable health issues is particularly acute for them. “We have already seen the data — more kids riding the buses, that means more of our most vulnerable who are not missing school,” said Kyla Johnson-Trammell, superintendent of Oakland Unified School District, during a press conference Tuesday. “That, over time, means they’re having more learning and achievement goes up.”

What’s more, a core challenge of weaning our society off fossil fuels is that utilities will need to produce more electricity, not less of it. “In some places, you’re talking about doubling the amount of energy needed,” said Kevin Schneider, an expert in power systems at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who isn’t involved in the Oakland project. 

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Counterintuitively enough, the buses’ massive batteries aren’t straining the grid; they’re benefiting it. Like a growing number of consumer EV models , the buses are equipped with vehicle-to-grid technology , or V2G. That allows them to charge their batteries by plugging into the grid, but also send energy back to the grid if the electrical utility needs extra power. “School buses play a very important role in the community as a transportation provider, but now also as an energy provider,” said Vivek Garg, co-founder and chief operating officer of Zum.

And provide the buses must. Demand on the grid tends to spike in the late afternoon, when everyone’s returning home and switching on appliances like air conditioners. Historically, utilities could just spin up more generation at a fossil fuel power plant to meet that demand. But as the grid is loaded with more renewable energy sources, intermittency becomes a challenge: You can’t crank up power in the system if the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

If every EV has V2G capability, that creates a distributed network of batteries for a utility to draw on when demand spikes. The nature of the school bus suits it perfectly for this, because it’s on a fixed schedule, making it a predictable resource for the utility. In the afternoon, Zum’s buses take kids home, then plug back into the grid. “They have more energy in each bus than they need to do their route, so there’s always an ample amount left over,” said Rudi Halbright, product manager of V2G integration at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the utility that’s partnered with Zum and Oakland Unified for the new system.

As the night goes on and demand wanes, the buses charge again to be ready for their morning routes. Then during the day, they charge again, when there’s plentiful solar power on the grid. On weekends or holidays, the buses would be available all day as backup power for the grid. “Sure, they’re going to take a very large amount of charge,” said Kevin Schneider, an expert in power systems at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who isn’t involved in the Oakland project. “But things like school buses don’t run that often, so they have a great potential to be a resource.”

That resource ain’t free: Utilities pay owners of V2G vehicles to provide power to the grid. (Because V2G is so new, utilities are still experimenting with what this rate structure looks like.) Zum says that that revenue helps bring down the transportation costs of its buses to be on par with cheaper diesel-powered buses. Oakland Unified and other districts can get still more money from the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program , which is handing out $5 billion between 2022 and 2026 to make the switch.

The potential of V2G is that there are so many different kinds of electric vehicles (or vehicle types left to electrify). Garbage trucks run early in the day, while delivery trucks and city vehicles do more of a nine-to-five. Passenger vehicles are kind of all over the place, with some people taking them to work, while others sit in garages all day. Basically, lots of batteries — big and small — parked idle at different times to send power back to the grid.

All the while, fiercer heat waves will require more energy-hungry air conditioning to keep people healthy. (Though ideally, everyone would get a heat pump instead.) “We’re still going to need more generation, more power lines, but energy storage is going to give us the flexibility so we can deploy it quicker,” Schneider said. In the near future, you may get home on a sweltering day and still be able to switch on your AC — thanks to an electric school bus sitting in a lot. 

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Why Mississippi coal is powering Georgia’s data centers

Transportation, nyc’s food delivery workers are sweltering in the heat — and demanding more protection, the forgotten fight to ban gas-powered cars in the 1960s, deal of the day: new study links online shopping to air pollution, the $1.7 billion bet on american-made evs, explained by the secretary of energy, can the us census keep up with climate-driven displacement, as ‘doomsday’ glacier melts, can an artificial barrier save it, midwest grid operators submit $1.7 billion plan to build cross-border power lines, gop-run districts get 85% of the benefit of climate law. some still hate it., modal gallery.

Watch CBS News

The EPA is spending billions on electrifying school buses. Here's what it means for kids and schools.

By Jo Ling Kent , Emily Pandise

August 28, 2024 / 8:19 PM EDT / CBS News

This back-to-school season, the list of electronics includes not just laptops and calculators but something a little bigger — the school bus. Nearly 200,000 of the more than 25 million students who take the bus in the U.S. will catch an electric battery-powered ride this year, according to the World Resources Institute . 

WRI's data analysis finds that over 800 school districts in the U.S. have at least one electric bus on the road, and funding is secured for about 12,000 more — about 2.5% of the nation's nearly 500,000 school buses. But at a cost of around $350,000 per bus, districts say they would not be able to fund new fleets, including buses and charging infrastructure, out of their own budgets. 

A $5 billion cash infusion from the Environmental Protection Agency, passed as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in fall 2021, is a boost for electrifying fleets . Federal grants have funded over two-thirds of committed electric buses . Some states have helped fill additional gaps, including California and Massachusetts.  

School buses are ideal for electrification, explained Leah Stokes, an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Buses "run the same route every single day, and they can charge in the middle of the day," Stokes said. "Those are some of the easiest things to electrify. And that's why it's so important to move to electric school buses. It's better for our health. It'll save school districts money, and it's of course better for our planet." 

The politics of going electric could reduce funding opportunities depending on who is in the White House come next year, Stokes said. "If Trump is elected, the fact is that we would lose this funding," she said. "[Trump] is not interested in electrifying our transportation system." 

Federal funding is key

At Modesto City Schools in California's Central Valley, superintendent Sara Noguchi said her district initially planned a $12 million investment to electrify half of its fleet from diesel to electric. 

The district, which buses about 5,200 of its students each day, rolled out 30 electric buses over the course of the 2023-24 school year. The district has reduced its out-of-pocket cost to $3 million from that original estimate, according to district officials. 

Noguchi said her district would not have been able to make the investment if not for federal funds, and acknowledged that funding can sometimes be political. 

"I'm hopeful that as a nation, we're committed to doing the work around sustainability that we know we need to do whichever political party is in place," Noguchi said.

The savings are already starting to add up in Modesto, where Noguchi said diesel costs have been reduced by 41%, or 47,000 gallons of fuel, reducing the school district's emissions. 

"What does that equate to? A little over a million pounds in two years of carbon that's not being emitted into the Central Valley and into our air system," Noguchi said. "Over time, and especially if we have all of our buses and other districts have all of their buses, that's going to be a big game changer."

There are health upsides to reducing emissions, too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 4.3 million school-aged children in the U.S. have asthma, which the EPA says can be caused or made worse by exposure to diesel exhaust. 

Until there are electric vehicle chargers available wherever students go, including high schools where Modesto students are bused for sports and senior trip destinations like Disneyland, Noguchi will need to hold onto a couple of diesel buses for long-range trips. 

"They get off with a smile"

For parents, the change is welcome. Elvira Ceja has three kids in Modesto schools, two of whom have respiratory issues and allergies, respectively, that she said are exacerbated by diesel fumes. 

A year of riding electric buses has reduced the number of headaches Ceja's kids reported, averted trips to the doctor's office and improved their overall mood, she said. Toddler Maite can greet her brothers Aaron and Ariel at the bus stop without her mom worrying about air quality. 

"They used to get off the bus angry," the stay-at-home mom explained. "Now, they get off with a smile and they get a ball and they go outside and play."

Ceja believes the new buses are worth the investment. "We always want our kids to be safe," she said. "For the whole entire community, less pollution here in Modesto, that's great." 

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Electric school buses waste valuable resources.

Up to four times as expensive as diesel-powered version

As the new school year starts, 26 million children are boarding school buses, and an increasing number of these buses are electric. While some see this as a win, not everybody is enthusiastic.

Despite their touted benefits, electric school buses are more expensive than diesel alternatives, less reliable in cold and hot weather, have limited range and are difficult to charge in rural school districts.

A July report from the inspector general in Montgomery County, Maryland, concluded that the county did not receive 206 electric buses on schedule between 2022 and 2024 and expects to receive only 30 of 120 buses next year. The county also did not charge the contractor the $372,000 in fees to which it was entitled to because of the delay. These errors led to millions of dollars in wasteful spending, the inspector general found.

This is after a report last December from the Center for Effective School Operations stated: “The true costs and operational implications of the decision to proceed with fleet electrification have not been well understood. … The result is a partially electrified fleet that requires more operational adaptation to be successful, and looming liabilities that must be mitigated before further conversions should be considered.”

Nevertheless, federal and state governments are funding these new buses through mandates and over $6 billion in subsidies, highlighting supposed health and environmental benefits. As a result, the past few years have seen a surge in the purchase and operation of electric school buses, or ESBs.

The most common school bus typically costs about $100,000 for a diesel-powered version. Electric buses range from $281,000 to $448,000, making them up to four times as expensive.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, has allocated 60% of its $5 billion fund for school bus replacement so far. At the state level, California leads in funding through its Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, which has allocated $200 million to electric school buses so far.

The number of committed ESBs, buses that have been ordered, have been delivered to the customer or are in operation, has surged from 2,334 in 2021 to 12,196 in 2024.

Currently, 235,000 of the 26 million students who ride the bus are taking electric school buses, and some have found them unreliable.

Parents expect dependable school bus service, yet ESBs have proved questionable in winter conditions. In temperatures of 25 degrees Fahrenheit or below, their range decreases by 33%, according to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. At zero degrees, ESBs can lose up to 80% of their range.

In a pilot program in the Bay Shore Union Free School District in Long Island, New York, Blue Bird electric buses were supposed to run 120 miles per charge. In winter, however, their range dropped to 70 miles per charge — a 42% loss.

On the other side of the weather spectrum, temperatures of 80 and higher also reduce the efficiency and performance of the buses.

ESBs are not only unreliable in certain weather conditions but also impractical in rural school districts. For example, in rural parts of Northern California, the lack of charging infrastructure and the limited vehicle range relative to the distance needed to travel make ESBs impractical.

The high cost and poor reliability of electric school buses should raise concern about mandates from state governments and financial incentives from Uncle Sam. California requires all new school bus purchases in 2035 or later to be electric. In New York state, all new school buses purchased starting in 2027 must be electric, and by 2035, the whole fleet must be fully electric.

Eleven states have also adopted the Advanced Clean Trucks regulation, which requires manufacturers of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles — including school buses — to sell zero-emission vehicles as a growing percentage of their sales annually or potentially face civil penalties.

State mandates and federal subsidies should not be wasted on costly, unreliable electric school buses. Parents expect their children to board buses that are safe and dependable in all weather conditions and regions, whether they run on diesel, electricity or clean natural gas. Electric buses haven’t yet reached this standard.

• Austin Gae is a research associate at the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment in Domestic Policy at The Heritage Foundation. Andrew Weiss is a research assistant at Heritage.

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India's Drive Towards Green Mobility: Policy Push for Electric Vehicles

The indian government is vigorously promoting green mobility through various policy measures. according to g20 sherpa amitabh kant, significant efforts include lower taxes for electric vehicles, encouraging battery manufacturing, and massive tenders for electric buses. the mercedes-benz research and development india event highlighted initiatives for sustainable mobility and innovation..

The Indian government is intensifying its push for green mobility adoption using every policy tool at its disposal, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant stated on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) event, Kant revealed multiple policy measures aimed at facilitating a shift towards electric mobility nationwide.

''Current policies tax electric vehicles at just 5 per cent compared to 48 per cent for hybrids, a framework set to continue long-term,'' he said, adding the government is also heavily promoting battery manufacturing.

''Our strategy involves leveraging all available policy levers, including CAFE norms, to push India's electrification in mobility relentlessly,'' Kant added. Missing this shift, he warned, could cost India leadership in EV manufacturing. Following a major tender for 6,000 electric buses, bigger tenders are anticipated to further reduce costs.

MBRDI announced the expansion of its Sustainability Garage initiative to include two new Centres of Excellence in Hyderabad and New Delhi, fostering innovation and sustainability.

MBRDI CEO Manu Saale emphasized the Garage's role in driving solutions for global climate, environment, and mobility challenges. Mercedes-Benz board member Renata Jungo Brungger highlighted the company's commitment to societal contributions beyond its core business.

(With inputs from agencies.)

• READ MORE ON:
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Will work relentlessly to make India green mobility destination, says Amitabh Kant

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New Delhi: The government will relentlessly push for adoption of green mobility in India through all the policy levers available with it, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) event here, he stated that the government is taking several policy measures to encourage a shift towards electric mobility in the country.

"We have had a policy framework where the tax on electric vehicles is just 5 per cent as compared to 48 per cent on hybrids which we intend to continue over a long period of time," Kant stated.

He noted that the government is pushing for battery manufacturing in a very big way in India.

"Our policy is that we push for more and more electrification in mobility through all the policy levers available including CAFE norms. So we will relentlessly push for India becoming a green mobility destination," Kant said.

He noted that if the country doesn't make the shift it would miss out on the opportunity to become a leader in EV manufacturing. Kant noted that following the tender for about 6,000 electric buses for seven cities, new bigger tenders would roll out in future.

"The next tender we are doing is for 10,000 buses and the third tender would be for 50,000 buses, so the size  and scale would help in bringing down the prices of electric buses in a big way," he said.

MBRDI on Tuesday announced the expansion of Sustainability Garage – A Mercedes-Benz initiative, a unique platform for diverse stakeholder groups to collaborate and champion sustainability goals.

Designed to enable research, create interactive spaces for immersive engagement, and promote social innovation projects in climate, environment, and sustainable mobility, the initiative will now include two new Centres of Excellence based out of Hyderabad and New Delhi.

"The new Sustainability Garage projects will play a vital role in furthering innovation from India to meet some of the most pressing global challenges," MBRDI Managing Director and CEO Manu Saale said.

Mercedes-Benz Group AG Member of the Board of Management for Integrity, Governance & Sustainability Renata Jungo Brungger said the company wants to make a positive contribution to society that goes beyond its core business activities.

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Current research status and future trends of vibration energy harvesters.

1. Introduction

2. electromagnetic vibration energy harvester, 2.1. working principle and characteristics of the electromagnetic vibration energy harvester, 2.2. advances in electromagnetic vibration energy harvesters, 3. piezoelectric vibration energy harvester, 3.1. operating principle and characteristics of piezoelectric vibration energy harvester, 3.2. progress of research on piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters, 4. friction electric vibration energy harvester, 4.1. mechanism of operation and characteristics of the friction electric vibration energy harvesters, 4.1.1. friction nanogenerator, 4.1.2. principle of friction electric vibration energy harvester, 4.2. advances in friction electric vibration energy harvesters, 5. electrostatic vibration energy harvester, 5.1. the working principle of the electrostatic vibration energy harvester and its characteristics, 5.2. current research status of electrostatic vibration energy harvesters, 6. magnetostrictive vibration energy harvester, 6.1. operating principle and characteristics of magnetostrictive vibration energy harvesters, 6.2. current status of research on magnetostrictive vibration energy harvesters, 7. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

• Bouhedma, S.; Bin Taufik, J.; Lange, F.; Ouali, M.; Seitz, H.; Hohlfeld, D. Different Scenarios of Autonomous Operation of an Environmental Sensor Node Using a Piezoelectric-Vibration-Based Energy Harvester. Sensors 2024 , 24 , 1338. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
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Qu, G.; Xia, H.; Liang, Q.; Liu, Y.; Ming, S.; Zhao, J.; Xia, Y.; Wu, J. Current Research Status and Future Trends of Vibration Energy Harvesters. Micromachines 2024 , 15 , 1109. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15091109

Qu G, Xia H, Liang Q, Liu Y, Ming S, Zhao J, Xia Y, Wu J. Current Research Status and Future Trends of Vibration Energy Harvesters. Micromachines . 2024; 15(9):1109. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15091109

Qu, Guohao, Hui Xia, Quanwei Liang, Yunping Liu, Shilin Ming, Junke Zhao, Yushu Xia, and Jianbo Wu. 2024. "Current Research Status and Future Trends of Vibration Energy Harvesters" Micromachines 15, no. 9: 1109. https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15091109

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2024 Election

Harris is on a 2-day georgia bus tour. it’s the latest sign the state is in play.

Tamara Keith

Harris-Walz campaign hit local stops in the Sunbelt swing state of Georgia by bus

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, disembark from their campaign bus in Savannah, Ga., on Wednesday, as they travel across Georgia on a 2-day campaign bus tour. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Vice President Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are back on their campaign bus. The pair are together on the campaign trail for the first time since last week’s Democratic convention. This time, they’re on a two-day bus tour of Georgia.

Their trip is taking them into areas of the state that don’t always get attention from Democratic politicians. It will also be the site of Harris’ first major network interview since becoming her party’s nominee for president, on Thursday.

The attention this week is just the latest sign that Georgia, a state President Biden narrowly won in 2020, is once again in play this election year.

“This area is a priority for the campaign: we have nearly 50 full-time staff across 7 offices in South Georgia,” said Porsha White, the Georgia state director for the Harris campaign, ahead of the trip. “This will be the first time a general election presidential candidate will have campaigned in Savannah since the 1990s.”

Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz visit Sandfly Bar-B-Q restaurant in Savannah, Ga., on Wednesday. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Upon arrival in Savannah, Harris and Walz greeted students from Savannah State University, the oldest public HBCU in Georgia, before boarding their campaign bus.

Their first stop on Wednesday was to a marching band rehearsal at Liberty County High School, which, according to U.S. News and World Report, has about 1,000 students, a majority of them “economically disadvantaged.”

The room erupted when Harris and Walz walked in, and the band played the school fight song with football players and cheerleaders in the back of the room. Leaning into his experience as a former coach, Walz gave a quick speech about teamwork. Harris told the crowd they were all leaders in their own way.

Next stop: Sandfly Bar-B-Q in Savannah, a restaurant decorated with license plates from various states. Harris and Walz were greeted by the restaurant's owner, employees and local patrons. Walz sought out a group of teachers and praised their “noble” work. He talked about the importance of optimism and insisted, “Our politics can be hopeful.” Outside, a man held a Trump flag.

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris visits Dottie's Market in Savannah, Ga., on August 29, during the second day of a campaign bus tour. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

On Thursday, Harris stopped by Dottie’s Market in Savannah, where she told the owner she plans to announce a tax credit to boost small business creation. “What I’m going to be rolling out next week is basically a tax credit for startups, small business startups,” she said.

Later was a rally at the city's Enmarket Arena, where she outlined her vision to "fight for America’s future" that included Medicaid expansion, focusing on middle- and working-class families and expanding reproductive rights.

Harris’ momentum continues as she ties with Trump in these swing states

It’s part of a broader strategy to reach voters in traditionally republican areas in swing states.

Savannah — like most major cities — votes strongly Democratic. But it is swimming in a sea of red — and that’s where Harris and Walz are campaigning.

“The whole point is to overperform,” said Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie. “And so you want to overperform not just among your base, but you also want to overperform in places where you have historically been weak.”

That means campaigning far from the Democratic strongholds of Atlanta, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C., to narrow the margins in parts of those competitive swing states that have typically voted Republican. In other words, losing by less.

In Georgia, where reliably Republican voters still outnumber reliably Democratic ones, that’s really the only way to have a chance at winning.

“Democrats also want to perform better than they historically have in other parts of the state, so you want to be able to post stronger margins — even if they are losing margins — in other parts of the state,” Gillespie said.

Donald Trump's big get-out-the-vote strategy in Arizona and Georgia? Donald Trump

Both campaigns put money and time into georgia.

In presidential races, there are two big indicators of how campaigns are feeling about their chances in a state: time and money. Since Harris got into the race, Donald Trump and his allies have spent nearly $33 million on ads in the state, mostly trying to define Harris with pretty negative messaging. Meanwhile Harris and her allies have spent nearly $23 million, mostly on more positive ads introducing her to voters. That’s according to an NPR analysis of data from the tracking firm Ad Impact. People watching TV in Georgia are seeing a ton of campaign ads already.

Today, the Harris campaign launched its first “contrast” ad , hitting Trump and tying him to the unpopular conservative roadmap known as Project 2025 . That will be on heavy rotation in Georgia and other swing states.

Vice President Kamala Harris during a campaign event in Savannah, Ga., on Thursday. Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

The Harris campaign has invested in 24 offices around Georgia, including in more traditionally Republican areas. Since Harris started running for president, White says they’ve brought in 35,000 new volunteers.

As Harris inches ahead, the cavalry comes to Trump's aid on the airwaves

As for time: Trump held a rally in Georgia earlier this month — though he spent part of his speech bashing the state’s Republican governor. (Trump has since made a public show of saying they’ve worked things out.) This week’s bus tour is Harris’ second trip to the state in less than a month.

Polling averages show the race remains close — and it’s much closer with Harris at the top of the ticket than when Biden was the presumptive nominee . Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes. But the state’s two Democratic U.S. senators are proof that a Democrat can win if they run a near-perfect campaign.

The Trump campaign will also be turning up the heat in the state this week in an effort to win it back. Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene plans to head to a volunteer phone bank in Rome, Ga. In a release she cites “dozens of paid staff, thousands of volunteers, and field offices in every part of the state, from Atlanta to Savannah to the Valdosta. Team Trump will not leave a stone unturned this fall.”

For Trump, Georgia is a must-win state. For Harris, it would open up additional paths to the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

Harris and Walz will take a pitstop in Georgia to do an interview

As Harris and Walz meet voters in person, they are also set to sit down for their first television interview together. CNN’s Dana Bash interviewed them at Kim’s Cafe, a Black-owned restaurant in Savannah, this afternoon. It will air at 9 p.m. EST on CNN.

Harris needs Gen Z. Here's her plan to win them

For the entirety of Harris’ nascent candidacy, she has been in a position to control the message, and she has largely delivered prepared remarks from teleprompter. The interview is, of course, a different format, where she is likely to be pressed on areas where her position has changed since the Democratic primary in 2020, when she supported some version of Medicare for All, opposed fracking and didn’t have as hard of a line on immigration and border security as she does now.

She won’t be alone. Walz will also be part of the interview, which means there likely will be some questions about their relationship and how they would work together — questions that by their nature are not as perilous as trying to explain policy shifts.

The Trump campaign has been publicly badgering Harris to do an interview, in part because they are looking for something to pounce on where they can actually get some traction. They have been trying unsuccessfully for five weeks to end her campaign honeymoon and make some attacks stick, and this interview is the best chance they’ve had in a while.

Already, Trump’s running mate JD Vance is criticizing Harris and Walz for doing a joint appearance rather than having Harris sit for a grilling alone. But it’s not clear how much voters really care about these intricacies.

• election 2024
• Kamala Harris
• 2024 election
• presidential election
• Donald Trump

Harris and Walz heading to Georgia as campaign seeks to build on convention momentum

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will launch a bus tour of southern Georgia next week, the duo’s first time campaigning in the state together and, as of now, their first public event after the Democratic convention in Chicago.

The pair will be using the momentum from the party’s convention to drive them into the last couple months of the general election. In addition to the bus tour, Harris and Walz are expected to tape their first joint interview next week and attend multiple fundraisers, most likely to take place in New York, California, Florida and Georgia, according to two sources familiar with the planning.

Following the tour, Harris will headline a solo rally in Savannah, Georgia. The trip will mark Harris’ seventh visit to the state this year and her second since launching her presidential campaign last month.

“Campaigning in this part of the Peach State is critical as it represents a diverse coalition of voters, including rural, suburban, and urban Georgians — with a large population of Black voters and working class families,” the Harris-Walz campaign said in a press release announcing the bus tour.

Harris and Walz’s visit will come as the Republican ticket ramps up its campaigning in the state. Vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio held a campaign event in Valdosta on Thursday, following a rally by former President Donald Trump in Atlanta earlier this month. Republicans, too, have sought to capitalize on polling that suggests the party could pick up a larger share of Black and Latino voters this election cycle.

The southern Georgia bus tour is expected to echo the campaign’s bus tour of western Pennsylvania earlier this month, which included stops at a local campaign field office, a firehouse and a high school football practice.

Harris and Walz initially planned to visit Savannah during the campaign’s battleground state tour earlier this month, but they had to postpone the event due to Tropical Storm Debby.

Though it’s unclear exactly where Harris and Walz will go, southern Georgia is home to some of the state’s largest Black populations, including Dougherty County, which has the second-highest proportion of Black residents in the state. The campaign has opened field offices in the predominantly Black cities of Albany and Valdosta.

“The south Georgia region is a priority for the campaign: We have nearly 50 full time staff across seven offices in the area, including Valdosta. We have hosted more than 500 events in the region since May 31,” Harris-Walz Georgia campaign spokesperson Adelaide Bullock said.

Ranada Robinson, research director for the New Georgia Project Fund, said appealing to Black voters in both rural and urban areas will be critical to Harris’ success in the state, as it was to Biden’s victory in 2020.

“Black voters are the key to winning Georgia. Of course Black Georgians can’t do it alone, but we are absolutely the reason 2020 turned out the way it did,” she said. “Black voters had historical turnout, and it has to happen again for there to be victory in Georgia.”

Earlier this month, Harris held the second rally of her presidential campaign in Atlanta, an event that featured Megan Thee Stallion; the campaign said it attracted more than 10,000 people.

It then launched a mobilization effort in the state and now touts more than 35,000 volunteers, 174 staffers and 24 coordinated campaign offices sprawled across Georgia. The campaign refers to its ground game there as “the largest in-state operation of any democratic presidential campaign cycle ever in Georgia.”

The Harris-Walz campaign said it has recruited nearly 400,000 news volunteers nationally since Harris launched her presidential bid last month. The campaign refers to its ground game there as “the largest in-state operation of any democratic presidential campaign cycle ever in Georgia.”

Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon identified Georgia as one of the campaign’s top targets, noting shifting demographics that could aid the vice president in expanding support from 2020.

“The Vice President’s advantages with young voters, Black voters, and Latino voters will be important to our multiple pathways to 270 electoral votes,” Dillon wrote in a recent memo.

Harris and Walz are also expected to barnstorm battleground states around Labor Day, before Harris focuses more of her time on debate prep ahead of her September matchup with Trump.

A Trump adviser said the campaign expects Harris will get a “bump” coming off the convention but compared it to a “sugar high,” saying they didn’t believe it will change the overall state of the race.

CORRECTION: (Aug. 25, 2024 2:05 p.m. ET) A previous version of this article misstated the number of volunteers the Harris campaign has in Georgia. It has 400,000 nationally, not in the state of Georgia.

Nnamdi Egwuonwu is a 2024 NBC News campaign embed.

A review of electric bus vehicles research topics – Methods and trends

• January 2022
• Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 159(1)
• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

• University of Coimbra

• Université de Sherbrooke and IPC-ISEC

• University of Coimbra and INESC Coimbra

Abstract and Figures

Discover the world's research

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Electric Buses: A Review of Selected Concepts Solutions and Challenges

• First Online: 23 April 2021

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• Teresa Pamuła 5 &
• Stanisław Krawiec 5  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure ((LNITI))

The chapter aims to review the most popular topics and most commonly implemented solutions related to the introduction of electric buses into the urban transportation fleet. Primary problems are costs and battery charging technologies. The costs and the choice of charging technology depend on the preliminary estimation of the energy demand and the choice of tracks of electric bus. Energy saving in public transport is also a significant problem. Applying innovative technologies for powering and charging electric buses in practice is very challenging. The chapter presents the most frequently discussed topics concerning the problems of introducing electric bus to the public transport system based on selected recent publications of the matter.

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Pamuła, T., Krawiec, S. (2021). Electric Buses: A Review of Selected Concepts Solutions and Challenges. In: Krawiec, K., Markusik, S., Sierpiński, G. (eds) Electric Mobility in Public Transport—Driving Towards Cleaner Air. Lecture Notes in Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67431-1_5

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Fact Sheet | Battery Electric Buses: Benefits Outweigh Costs

By richard nunno.

October 26, 2018

Transit agencies around the United States and several other countries are purchasing battery-powered electric buses (BEBs) at increasing rates and these trends are expected to accelerate in the coming years. BEBs are powered by battery packs that run an electric motor to turn the wheels, the same as battery-powered electric cars. The batteries are recharged by plug-in chargers using electricity from the transmission grid. Since they do not use gasoline or diesel, BEBs do not produce tailpipe pollution. Thus, BEBs offer a better option than other bus technologies for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, as well as other harmful pollutants in urban areas.

As recently as December 2017, most U.S. transit agencies were still skeptical about transitioning to BEBs due to cost and performance issues. However, that consensus is shifting rapidly. In 2015, a typical 40-foot diesel bus cost about $445,000 while a BEB of similar length went for $770,000. Since then, the price difference between the two has decreased somewhat, but remains significant. The lower operating costs of BEBs, however, make them more economical in the long run than internal combustion engine buses. It is about 2.5 times cheaper to power vehicles with electricity rather than diesel, and electricity prices are generally much more stable than gasoline or diesel prices. The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has found that the fuel economy of BEBs is five times higher than that of diesel buses operated on equivalent routes. In addition, maintenance costs for electric motors is much lower because they have far fewer moving parts than conventional motors and are far more efficient.

The current battery technology of choice for electric buses is lithium-ion, the price of which has dropped 80 percent since 2010, and is projected to drop another 50 percent by 2020 or 2025. A lithium-ion battery provides enough energy to operate a bus for about 150 miles (in most conditions) before needing to be recharged. For hilly cities or cities where air conditioning must be used a lot, that range is significantly reduced. Charging can be done in a few different ways: slowly overnight (which causes the least wear to the battery and other components), by using an overhead charging system, or by using a system that is embedded under the pavement. The latter two methods are much quicker than the first method, but tend to degrade the bus components more quickly.

It is estimated that there are currently about 386,000 electric buses deployed around the world, with 99 percent of them in China, and less than 0.1 percent (only 350 buses) in the United States. However, a recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated that by 2025, half of the world’s municipal bus fleet will be electric, and by 2030, 84 percent of new municipal buses sold will be electric. By 2040, 80 percent of the world’s city bus fleet will be electric, along with 33 percent of the world’s cars. City buses (vs. inter-city or charter buses) are especially well-suited to electric power because they are regularly returned to a central depot where they can be recharged, and they don't operate over long ranges. Battery-charged vehicles typically have a driving range of 70-100 miles, and some can go up to 265 miles before needing to be recharged (diesel buses have an average range of 690 miles). Municipal buses also don’t carry too heavy a load (humans) compared to freight vehicles.

U.S. Transit Agencies Purchasing Battery-Powered Electric Buses

Many major cities and counties around the world are pledging to shift their entire fleets to BEBs by specific dates in the future. In the United States, these include Los Angeles County (by 2030), Seattle (King County, by 2040), San Francisco (by 2035), and New York (by 2040). To date, however, most city transit agencies have purchased BEBs in small numbers, to test them for reliability and compare them to traditional buses. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA, representing all of the major public transit agencies in the country) has stated that the economics of BEBs are shifting, although the price point for individual buses remains a barrier to overtaking diesel or other fuel systems. Below is a list of cities/transit agencies that have reportedly purchased BEBs to date or are planning BEB purchases.

Battery-Powered Electric Bus Manufacturers in North America

There are many companies worldwide that are engaged in the manufacture of electric buses (not including component parts) or electric-diesel hybrids. Eight of those companies are U.S.-based: five in California, the others in South Carolina, Missouri, and North Carolina.

In North America, the main manufacturers of electric buses are: Byd (a Chinese company that built a manufacturing facility in Lancaster, CA, 70 miles north of Los Angeles, just prior to winning a contract with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority); Proterra (a Silicon Valley startup with manufacturing facilities in California and South Carolina); and New Flyer Industries, Inc. (a Canadian bus manufacturer based in Winnipeg).

Over the past year, several performance problems have been identified with BEBs produced by Byd that were purchased by local transit agencies in California, Colorado, and New Mexico. The buses reportedly depleted their battery charge far before their advertised range, stalled or had problems starting, and had difficulty climbing hills. After the problems were uncovered, the local transit agencies have been seeking recourse with Byd. Meanwhile, rival BEB manufacturers Proterra and New Flyer subsequently demonstrated their vehicles' competency on steep grades and other performance challenges in testing scenarios.

Health and Environmental Benefits of Battery-Electric Powered Buses

The health hazards of diesel buses (the technology currently used for the vast majority of buses) are well known among health professionals. Moreover, buses tend to be used in urban settings where there are concentrations of people and air quality is already degraded by other pollutants. Diesel, which is a known carcinogen, can also cause respiratory diseases such as asthma. Those who use public transit most often, including children, the elderly, and those without access to a car, are at particular risk.

A particularly compelling case can be made for transitioning school buses from diesel to electric. Because children are exposed daily to the exhaust fumes from their buses, studies have shown that children who ride the bus to school are more likely to develop respiratory diseases and worsening levels of conditions like asthma. Studies have shown that exposure to diesel soot and ground-level ozone created by diesel exhaust is linked to higher rates of cancer and mortality. Children are especially vulnerable to the negative health effects caused by air pollution, as their respiratory systems are still in development and they inhale more air per pound of body weight than adults. Electric buses also produce much less noise than combustion engine buses. The beneficial health effects of BEBs over diesel are provided to drivers/operators as well as passengers.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) and other public interest groups are advocating for federal policies that help local jurisdictions replace their school buses with BEBs for health benefits, long-term cost savings, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Some of their recommended actions at the federal and state levels include:

• Creating an incentive program and grants for transit agencies, school districts and bus contractors to help finance the up-front cost of BEBs and their charging infrastructure;
• Facilitating the installation of charging infrastructure through programs that help cover the costs;
• Encouraging electric utilities to design their rates to support BEBs;
• Designing financing programs for BEB purchases that leverage other sources of funding, such as the Volkswagen settlement money (estimated at $2 billion);
• Providing technical assistance and conducting research to facilitate the transition to BEBs.

Some members of Congress are considering introducing legislation that promotes some of these policies.

Federal, State, and Private Funding for Battery-Electric Powered Buses

Federal grants are being made to rehabilitate and purchase buses to support the transition of the nation’s transit fleet to the lowest polluting and most energy efficient transit vehicles. It remains to be seen, however, whether the federal government will release all the funds earmarked for local transit agencies this year. On April 5, 2018, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Transportation) announced that it had awarded $264 million in grants (from a combination of FY2017 and 2018 funds) to 139 projects under its Buses and Bus Facilities Infrastructure Investment Program. On April 23, FTA announced that it had made another $84.45 million available of FY2018 funds to states and direct recipients for the purchase or lease of low- or no-emissions vehicles and related equipment and facilities (under FTA’s “Low-No” Vehicle Program, which is part of the Bus and Bus Facilities infrastructure Investment Program). Low- or no-emissions vehicles include electric vehicles as well as vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells and hybrids of internal combustion engine and electric powered vehicles. FTA accepted applications until June 18 for these funds and is currently reviewing them for grant awards. On June 21, FTA announced that it was making another $366.3 million (FY2018 funds) available for competitive grants for transit bus projects. Grant applications were accepted until August 1, but FTA has not stated when the awards will be made. School buses are not eligible to receive funds under FTA’s "Low-No" program.

At the state level, the California Air Resources Board has approved $208 million to incentivize school and transit districts to purchase low- and zero emissions bus and truck fleets. The California Energy Commission also has allocated $75 million for BEB purchases. In recent weeks, numerous other states have proposed using some of their Volkswagen settlement money to purchase BEBs and charging infrastructure.

Private sector funding is also beginning to materialize in support of BEB deployment. In July 2018, Byd (with financial backing from Warren Buffett) formed a joint venture with investment company Generate Capital, to lease its BEBs to cities, schools and corporations in the United States. Generate Capital is investing $200 million in the program.

A closely related development that is attracting private sector attention is the increasing deployment of electric trucks, which use basically the same technologies and systems as BEBs. FedEx, DHL, and UPS have been purchasing electric trucks as well as the electric power recharging infrastructure they require. That infrastructure could potentially be used by BEBs if these two groups could work out sharing agreements.

In the wake of the Trump Administration's abdication of any federal role in fighting climate change, cities and states have ramped up their efforts. One of the areas where this trend can be seen is in the increasing interest in Battery-Powered Electric Buses. As the electricity generation sector transitions to renewable energy sources, cities and transit agencies are eager to become bigger customers by using their power to charge BEB fleets. While the United States cannot hope to catch up to China’s level of BEB deployment for the foreseeable future, significant progress can be made on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the transportation sector by investing in Battery-Powered Electric Buses.

This fact sheet is available electronically (with hyperlinks and endnotes) here .

Author: Richard Nunno

Editor: Carol Werner