Thomas Built Buses, the North American Daimler Trucks subsidiary, is to provide the first 50 fully electric versions of the iconic black and yellow school buses in the first step of an initiative by Virginia based power company Dominion Energy, which plans to switch 1,050 school buses in the state from diesel to electric.
The subsidiary claims it has won the largest order to date for electric school buses in the US.
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The electric battery technology for the Jouley is the result of a cooperation with the Californian company Proterra and has total power capacity of 220kWh and an estimated range of 134 miles.
Thomas Built Buses is the only school bus manufacturer to offer DC fast charging as standard equipment. The EV can be charged in about three hours with the optional Proterra 60kW fast charging system and can, when properly equipped, supply power back to the power grid using vehicle to grid (V2G) technology.
