Grant to give Kremmling 2 electric school buses

KREMMLING, Colo. — At the West Grand County School District bus barn, when Director of Transportation Bethany Aurin heads out on a route it’s usually in a battery powered electric bus.

“I drive it about 75 miles a day,” Aurin said.

Kremmling is known as one of the coldest places in the state, where morning temperatures in the winter range between 30 below zero and 5 degrees, but despite those cold temps have been using an electric school bus since 2020.

“Most of the winter it’s 30 to 35 below, when it’s up to 20 below that’s good day and it’s performed extremely well,” Aurin said.

Not only do bus drivers say the electric bus does well in the winter, but they say it’s the best bus in their fleet with a much lower operating cost than diesel buses.

“It averages 26 cents per mile and the diesel buses, just for fuel not including oil changes, filters, lubes, is 58 cents per mile,” Aurin said.

Now thanks to a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), two more electric buses are coming to Kremmling. Casey Becker with the EPA says there will be a total of 49 electric school buses heading to nine Colorado School Districts, including four in Summit County and three in Steamboat Springs.

“What we are seeing is that these buses are doing great in cold weather they still maintain a battery charge even when it’s cold,” Becker said.

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