White House Recognizes First Student Among EV Accelerators

The White House on March 30 announced public and private commitments geared toward helping the United States transition to electric vehicles under the EV Acceleration Challenge. Among those commitments: First Student's goal of converting 30,000 fossil fuel-powered school buses to electric by 2035.

"At First Student, we are proud to be leading the way in school bus electrification," said Kevin L. Matthews, First Student's electrification leader. "We appreciate the recognition by the White House of our commitment to accelerating the EV transition, which is having an immediate and positive impact on the communities we serve. Electric school buses improve environmental health and provide an exceptional experience for our student passengers with zero noise and zero emissions, getting them to school ready to learn to achieve their full potential."

The company currently has 240 electric school buses on the road and recently marked 1 million miles of service with EVs.

According to a White House news release, the commitments are in line with President Joe Biden's Investing in America agenda "to spur domestic manufacturing, strengthen supply chains, boost U.S. competitiveness, and create good-paying jobs."

The Inflation Reduction Act adds and expands tax credits for purchases of new and used EVs and offers incentives to electrify heavy-duty vehicles, including school buses, as well as support for the installation of residential, commercial, and municipal EV charging infrastructure.

"These incentives complement investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other federal initiatives that are spurring the domestic manufacturing of EVs and batteries and the development of a national EV charging network that provides access to low income and disadvantaged communities," the White House reported.

Other tools and resources announced by the Biden Administration:

• Google committed to providing up-to-date information about availability and coverage of tax credits across eligible passenger vehicles through a new search tool incorporating federal guidance to surface eligible EV tax credits and othe critical information.
• Wells Fargo is releasing a new tool that models deployment of electric vehicle fleets while incorporating the cost of electrification, tax credits, cost savings, and environmental benefits.

Organizations that want to join the EV Acceleration Challenge can do so at this link.