Our supt said 275k. Sincerely, Bob Bath 541.761.0838
Note: any misspellings of the contents of this message are due to 56 y.o. vision, hyperactive spell check changing what I typed, or fat fingering— not cluelessness. > On Oct 27, 2022, at 10:44 AM, EV List Lackey via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote: > > On 27 Oct 2022 at 11:57, Lee Hart via EV wrote: > >> That's $400,000 per bus! ... You're not going to get many schools to adopt >> them at that price. > > Nice work if you can get it, eh? :-\ > > ICE bus design is pretty much fully amortized, and their manufacture has > more economy of scale. But that's still kind of a nutso price by comparison. > > Such a nosebleed price makes E-buses difficult to justify to taxpayers, who > in many areas won't think that the buses are solving a significant problem. > Or at least one of THEIR immediate and personal problems, which is all they > care about. > >> Maybe some high school shop class should take on the challenge of >> converting one? > > Wouldn't that be great? Healthy for both the schools' budgets and the kids' > education. > > Unfortunately, that resounding thud that you just heard was several hundred > school board lawyers across the nation clasping their chests and face- > planting. Can you say "liability"? > >> So there could be quite a savings to converting what you already have. > > In theory, one would hope so, but maybe not if you contracted for > professional conversion. I assure you that school boards are NOT going to > let kids ride in conversions done in the student auto repair shop class. And > I agree with them. > > The problem is finding a decent one. Not that they don't exist - but rather > that school board members don't have the expertise to choose one. Heck, > some of them can barely pick decent textbooks. How can you expect them to > find a competent, experienced, financially secure, and *well-insured* EV > conversion contractor? > > There have been entirely too many failures among fleet conversions in the > past - say from around 1970 to 2000 or 2010. I think that there were lots of > reasons for the failures. Among them: > > - The vehicles weren't designed to be sufficiently robust. > > - The converters over-promised and under-delivered. > > - The converters didn't provide the level of support the customers needed, > often not prioritizing service for financial reasons. > > - The converters sometimes folded even before the pilot projects finished. > > - The drivers weren't trained to operate the conversions properly, often > resented having to drive vehicles unlike the ones they were used to ("What, > it doesn't have air conditioning?!"), and abused them until they failed. > > - The customers' maintenance people weren't trained properly, and often > resented having to work on vehicles unlike the ones they were used to > ("Sure, I watered the batteries. I sprayed them with this hose."), and > abused them until they failed. > > For school bus conversion, I'd probably trust an experienced and relatively > conscientious converter like Solectria. But even if they were still around, > would their conversions be much cheaper than factory EVs? You pay a lot for > that kind of engineering and component reliability when you're accepting > bids in in 2-digit or so quantities. > > Still, it would be interesting to see what a competent conversion contractor > could do with something like this. > > David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey > > To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my > offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their > homes electrical energy too cheap to meter. > > -- Lewis Strauss, Atomic Energy Commission, 1954 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/