Collaboration will support 2028 school bus electrification goal and roadmap for the Los Angeles region

Beverly, Mass., and Los Angeles, October 18, 2022 – Highland Electric Fleets, the leading provider of school bus fleet electrification, has joined the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator’s (LACI) Transportation Electrification Partnership (TEP) to help inform and implement an ambitious set of transportation electrification targets that will lead to air quality improvements by the 2028 Olympic Games.

LACI and Highland share a vision of building an inclusive green economy that improves public health, reduces pollution, protects vulnerable populations, creates green jobs and promotes economic growth.

Since 2018, the TEP, convened by LACI, has pursued bold zero-emission targets, and equity-driven pilots and policies. With Highland as a member of TEP, the coalition will set additional transportation targets that include reductions in school bus emissions. Highland’s public-private partnership expertise and experience deploying electric school bus fleets around the country will support these goals by engaging with school districts to educate students and stakeholders and to improve air quality amongst the most vulnerable population – children.

“LACI and Highland have a shared vision, and we are proud to join the TEP to help develop targets that support cleaner air and economic growth in the Los Angeles region,” said said Duncan McIntyre, CEO at Highland. “Public-private partnerships like ours and LACI’s can help accelerate an inclusive transition to electric school buses for all communities, delivering better health, good jobs, and a more sustainable future.”

In addition to deploying the largest electric school bus fleet to date in the U.S. with Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, Highland also pioneered the first use of electric school buses in a commercial V2G program in 2021 in Beverly, Mass. Over the summers of 2021 and 2022, the Beverly buses sent 10 MWh back to the grid over 80 hours across more than 60 grid events. 

“Setting a regional school bus electrification target and working together to advance progress to that end is critical to ensuring that our children are breathing clean air while providing opportunities to utilize these buses as energy storage devices to increase grid resiliency," said LACI president and CEO Matt Petersen. "We’re happy to have Highland contribute its expertise to our TEP partnership as we navigate toward this new goal.”