Why some P.E.I. bus drivers are getting fed up with their new electric school buses

Three years ago, the P.E.I. government rolled out its new electric school buses with much fanfare.

Now some drivers say the buses are plagued with problems, with 16 to 18 of the vehicles in the shop at a time on occasions, out of a total of just over 100.

Robert Geiss, president of CUPE Local 1145, which represents school bus drivers on the Island, says he believes the provincial government rushed into buying the new buses — and now students and drivers are paying the price.

He said the biggest problems are with the heating systems, leaving some buses icy cold and leading to windows fogging and freezing up. There also issues with air compressors freezing, which can interfere with braking, Geiss said during an interview with CBC News.

Spare buses are also in short supply, Geiss said, because so many of the province's electric buses are in the shop.

"The drivers are frustrated with the electric buses. There's about 16 per cent of them in the shop at any given time with issues," said Geiss, who drives an electric school bus in the Summerside area.

The union says the biggest problem is heating issues, which leave some buses icy cold and windows fogging and freezing up. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)

"You get a new bus, you just get everything moved onto your new bus, then it's in the shop. Then you're driving around in an older spare that's 10 to 12 years old."

He said some buses came in at one point that couldn't be charged. "They didn't have the software for the chargers; they only had the software for the rapid chargers and we don't have any rapid chargers."

Working on solutions

About 107 of the province's 360 school buses are now electric.

Dave Gillis, direction of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said officials met earlier this month with Lion Electric, the makers of the electric school buses. He said he's optimistic they have a handle on the issues and are working on fixes.

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Dave Gillis, direction of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, says Lion Electric has a handle on the issues and is working on fixes. (Brittany Spencer/CBC)

"We're dealing with a brand-new technology here. There's no such thing as a 10-year-old electric school bus anywhere in the world," Gillis said.

"We're transitioning our entire fleet to electric here in the next decade or so. We fully understand and expected that we would have some growing pains, learning experiences, along the way."

'It wasn't excessively cold'

Twice this month, Gillis said, P.E.I. students had to be sent home on buses without working heaters because there were no spares available in their area.

"We took two things into consideration when we made the decision," he said. "One was the temperature outside; it wasn't excessively cold. And two was the drive times associated with the two buses in question. In both of those scenarios, we made the decision that it was not a safety issue as much as it was a comfort issue."

Officials with Lion Electric, the makers of the electric buses, acknowledge there are issues with the buses.

But Marie-Ève Labranche, Lion's manager of public and government relations, said student safety is the company's top priority.

"The most common repair on EV buses is the auxiliary heating system, which can also be found on internal combustion engines (ICE) buses, but may require more frequent maintenance due to this being the sole source of heat on-board," Labranche said in a statement to CBC News.

"Lion is actively working on a solution for better performance and increased reliability."

The company said one of its six technicians is based on P.E.I. but it plans to add a second technician to help support the Island's fleet of electric buses.

Limited range can be a problem

Geiss said range is also an issue. The union president said drivers can't use the electric buses to take students to sporting events at some rural schools because they can't go far enough on a single charge.

The manufacturer says its electric school buses have a range of between 150 and 200 kilometres in ideal conditions, but Geiss said he's never seen any of the buses actually reach that number.

"I ran out of power on the way back from a school trip last year Up West," he said.

Officials with Lion Electric, the makers of the electric buses, acknowledge there are issues with the buses. (Wayne Thibodeau/CBC)

"I took a band trip up, and on the way back, I realized I wasn't going to make it. I radioed the depot and they met me at another driver's home that had a charger... We just swapped out buses and I continued on with the diesel bus and left the electric there to charge."

'I'd need 4 electric buses each way'

School branch officials admit range is an issue. For now, they will plan to use diesel buses for longer trips.

The Public School Branch plans to install Level 3 fast chargers at all its high schools soon, and intends to roll those chargers out to all schools "eventually."

In the meantime, Geiss said he fears students will either out on some extracurricular activities, like end-of-school-year trips, or the province may end up outsourcing the transportation, which he said would be unfair to the students and drivers alike.

"They are going to have to start buying either hybrids or some fossil-fuel buses as support because, as I said, we've got Island-wide tournaments. If I had to take a team from Westisle down to Souris, I'd need four electric buses each way to make the trip."