LOS ANGELES — Electric bus manufacturer GreenPower Motor Co. Inc. has received orders for a total of 10 of its school buses from three school districts in California.

Santa Maria-Bonita Unified School District (USD), Anaheim Union High School District (USD), and Hughson Unified School District (USD) ordered the 90-passenger Synapse 90 electric school buses from Creative Bus Sales, according to a news release from GreenPower.

The Synapse 90 is a Type D battery electric school bus with a range of up to 150 miles with a 194.5kWh battery pack, according to GreenPower. The vehicles can charge up to 20 kilowatts on standard J1772 protocol and has additional standard features such as air ride suspension, pass through storage, and air disk brakes.

The Synapse 90 qualifies for $220,000 under the California HVIP program and up to $400,000 under the California Volkswagen (VW) mitigation settlement funds program as well as other funding programs throughout the U.S.

"The school bus market is in the midst of a paradigm shift across the country and GreenPower is poised for significant growth to meet the unprecedented demand for cleaner student transportation,” said Brendan Riley, president of GreenPower. “We are thrilled to be working with these leading school districts in California and look forward to further collaboration in the future.”  

Richard Jimenez, the director of transportation at Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, who has already taken delivery of two GreenPower electric school buses, said that his district expects the buses to help drive down operational costs, meet the district’s range requirements, and enhance student safety.

“The safety of our students is the number-one priority for the district and we are also committed to doing our part in fighting climate change,” Jimenez said. “It’s a winning proposition for students, the district and the community.”